STUDENTS PROJECTS
PROJECTS2013
Students: Lazou Christina, Nikolaidou Alexandra
Supervisors: Tsiraki Sofia, Vasilatos Panagiotis
National Technical University of Athens, school of Architecture Engineering
Presentation Date : February 2014
The subject of the Diploma Project is an attempt of reading and interpreting the Landscape as well as the intervention so as to enhance the visitor's experience.
The greek landscape is being revealed like the book of Apocalypse. I didn't know that it had so much, I was walking with my eyes covered, with reluctant, trembling steps, I was proud and impudent, it was enough for me to live a fake, restricted life in the city. The Collosus of Maroussi, Henry Miller
After having studied in our Thesis the practice of Wandering as a reading tool of the urban cityscape, we make an attempt in our Diploma project to transfer and insert the opportunity of such a wandering into the less familiar for a city dweller landscape of the greek countryside.
We choose the landscape of South Kinouria in the area of Arcadia, a place with great and various interest - geographic because of its location and connections, geophysical, archaeological and historic, cultural and folkloric.
As a first step, we visit the place again and again, we walk, we study and discuss about it with local people and authorities. We try to recognize and decode the crucial characteristics of the Landscape ( the terrain, the trace-path, points of reference and orientation - landmarks, the sense of panorama, the sense of suspension, the mental continuity of a route and the recognition of the next step, the relation to the water etc.) so as to detect various space qualities and points of interest and create a network that would suggest a complete image of the wider nearby area. We urge the visitor by car, bike or on foot to stop, recognize the spots and wander.
Meanwhile, we have already studied relevant examples of networks which aim to a unique moving experience for the visitor. Such examples are the National Tourist Routes in Norway, the Romantic Route in Bavaria, Camino de Santiago, the European paths with a special theme etc. In Greece we can refer to the hiking trails, the revival of the old path network in the islands of Cyclades, as well as the highlighting and enhancing of historic and cultural routes in relevance with alternative activities such as climbing and speleology.
To the point, after having detected in our intervention area the points and places of a special interest, we choose a part that we assume it can summarize the image of the wider nearby area.
Our route can be shortly described as this : We move by the water between two ports - Plaka Leonidion and Poulithra - over or under the road where suitable in each occasion. Then, passing through the village of Poulithra we go up the mountain till the first stop of the plateau - the village Pirgoudi , where from we are able to inspect the whole area and the route we have already done - Panorama.
This network of the spots of interest, a potential route that can be followed as a whole or in parts, combines already existing elements of the landscape (existing paths, points of interest i.e. the ancient acropolis of Polichni etc) with new interventions.
In our spot interventions we include the following:
- Paths
- Stop and observation platforms and resting areas
- "Signaling" - highlighting of the spots in various ways,
- Integration of leisure and cultural uses
- Meeting and information cores
- Ways of promoting the local identity (i.e. promotion of local products)
- Reuse of existing building shells
- Designing and configuration of the entrance info -points of the existing archeological sites
- Access to the beaches etc..
Our target is to give the opportunity to the visitor to explore and becomeget familiar with the landscape.
The main architectural features and materials being used in the architectural interventions are:
The Walls of corten which form directions, routes and plateaus.
The Cantilever of reinforced concrete
The Trace - path of compacted earth or kourasanit
The Connector of corten in the form of bridges or stairs for the connection of different levels and materials.
The Signal of corten - sculptural features and lighting elements for spot signaling and highlighting.
The stone walls of local stone for the soil sculpturing where necessary.
Finally the wooden Pavilions directly related to the route and
The light timber and metallic structures, as an implementation into existing stone shells which host specific uses.
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