Wooden Boatbuilding and Sailing Centre

Students : Tzortsis Antonis
Surpervisor: Vozani Ariadni, Papalexopoulos Dimitris
National Technical University of Athens, school of Architecture Engineering
Presentantion date : April 2014

This thesis concerns a Wooden Boatbuilding School and Sailing Centre in Hermoupolis, Syros. The islands long history and tradition in maritime and boatbuilding makes it an ideal place for such an endeavor. With particular emphasis in sailboats, this project tries to blend the tradition of boatbuilding, that employs the island from 1824, with modern sailing and the technology concerning it.

The complex consists of three separate building sections. A Wooden Boatbuilding School, a Museum and a modern Sail Loft. The school provides specialized workshop for building and repairing wooden boats and teaching classrooms. The Sail Loft equipped with cutting-edge technology for the construction of modern sails, the lighter and stiffer composite cloths ever made, will provide innovative performance oriented construction methods. The Museum will host maritime heritage exhibits of the island, as well as material about sailing in the modern era. The location is in the southern part of the port of Hermoupolis, in the ruined textile factory of Ladopoulos family. The factory is located at the end of the city's industrial zone, filling a series of industrial buildings. Foundations such as the Industrial Museum of Hermoupolis and the Nautical Club of Syros, can be crucial to the dynamic of the island to support such an effort.

A number of investigating tools during the design process, related on the subject, the history of the industrial ruins and the location, were used to experiment. Elements like the wind and the cloth-fabric topology were studied in interaction with the 3d model of the remained building via CFD and dynamic simulations. Furthermore, an investigation upon monocoque shell structures through examples, simulations and 3d prints were part of the research.

These elements articulate a wider dynamic system that reflects multiple factors, such as functional requirements, local conditions and materialities. Thus the main idea of the synthesis is a museum that 'articulates' both the tradition (Wooden Boatbuilding School) with the high-end technology (Sail Loft), in a single space under a monocoque concrete shell structure and around a unique atrium. This dialogue is reflected in architectural space, in tectonics and in relation with the existing ruin building.