Diploma projects exhibition museum of school of architecture

Students: Agoras Dimitris, Papathomas George
Supervisor: Sophia Tsiraki
Consultants: K. Karadimas, D. N. Karydis
N.T.U.A
Presentation date : 30/07.2014

The Reason
The issue investigated in this paper is the Diploma Projects Exhibition Museum School of Architecture in Athens. Observing that the school of Architecture, NTUA, lacks a storage and exhibition system of diploma projects, beyond their compulsory presentation during exam periods and their temporary exhibition at the historic building of the Rector, an idea was born. A museum where scale model workshops and thematic exhibitions could take place (i.e. per architectural movement / time / architect / student-architect). In an space intended for this function.

The Region of Psirri
Examining the morphology in the region of Psyrri you can distinguish the Hippodameian structure from Piraeus Street up to the point of Dipylon and Euripides streets and the medieval structure on an irregular grid on the rest of the streets. The vast majority of the building blocks in the district, is comprised of a large number of alleys, irregularly shaped plots with a narrow surface, but often with enough depth. This results in the creation of an extremely complex system, with narrow passages, walkways, courtyards and continuous changes in the public and private space. The architectural wealth of Psirri presents a complex system, consisting of buildings of various types, ages and sizes. The buildings are divided into neoclassical 19th century ones until about 1920, in the eclectic 1920s, postwar flatblocks of 1960-70 and the more modern office buildings.

Cultural application
Piraeus Street was the backbone of industry in the past of Athens during the 19th and early 20th century. It was a factory and craft industry road. Some of those factories still operate, while the shells of others remain as monuments and many are found only in books of the industrial history of the country. Piraeus Street has undergone a transformation in the last decade. A transition from a period of being an industrial axis to a period of deindustrialization has taken place. Its nature and usage keeps changing character. From a purely industrial road it has been turned into a culture and entertainment axis, this creates new prospects for its future. The number of cultural uses which is adjacent to our land, forms a strong core of activities. Theatres, museums, galleries, libraries, art galleries, archaeological sites etc. are only 1.6km away (19 minutes' walk) from the School of Architecture. By choosing the specific site we attempt to achieve the necessary openness for the Museum.

The Place
Our site belongs to a building block which is located within the boundaries of historical significance for the city of Athens. It combines spatiotemporal imprints of 2500 years of human activity (ancient, classical, building, office building) in an area of just six acres. Three listed buildings coexist, a single-storey house on  Kalogerou Samuel Street, a popular building with neoclassical elements, a two-storey house on the same Street, neoclassical building of the late 19th century with remarkable architectural elements and one on Psaromiligkou Street which is a later industrial building, a listed monument as far as the shell is concerned (facades and roof).  Fragments of two ancient roads were revealed in the same area, one of which led to Hippios Colonus through Irion Gates. A roadside cemetery section (38 burials), with a burial perimeter and pedestal dating from the early 5th to mid-second century. B.C. was investigated near these two ancient roads.

The Intention
Approaching the subject synthetically the excavation already done is intensified in order to reveal all archaeological finds, while the natural environment, which is rare in the city center, is meant to be preserved. Shoring walls were deemed necessary in each case to maintain the ground stable. We decide to keep the passages of the building block and present a continuation of the urban and public space in it while not affecting the land core. We create a lightweight modular system of metal lofts and ramps which float above the ancient findings whilst allowing their visual contemplation at any level. The exhibition area consists of three towers (modulus) Two of them define the area of permanent exhibitions while the third one that interrupts the facade and expands to free lofts, hosts temporary and public functions. A single roof of concrete follows the city height and organizes and unifies the lofts. At the opposite side the lecture hall can be found, organized in the same way and penetrating below the existing building. The excavation below the neoclassical building serves an ideological purpose to us. It is the only place where the ancient relics, the neoclassical and the new buildings, coexist on the vertical axis. It is a conscious architectural intention, a "historical section", presenting the phases our land has gone through.