Inhabiting the landscape

Students : Evaggelos Dimitrakopoulos, Stefanos Skarlakidis
Tutors : Kostas Manolidis, Dimitris Filippitzis
University of Thessaly, Department of Architecture
Date of support: 22/09/2010

BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The modern "Xenia" aspires to remain a lively condenser of human activity in a place which, especially during summer months, accommodates thousands of swimmers and holiday makers. It aspires to form an articulation between the old "Xenia" and a modern unity of hospitality, an entity capable of covering the majority of the necessary comforts without aggravating the area to a large extent.

SUMMARY
The object of our diploma thesis is the planning of a modern tourist accommodation, with buildings which fit the environment in terms of architecture and are friendly to it in terms of construction. Among our intentions is the creation of a hospitality mosaic containing constructions of different character which "listen" to all sorts of topography, as well as the formation of a tourist port, of limited potentiality, together with the necessary facilities. Our intervention as a whole attempts the conciliation with the existing Xenia of Paliouri (A. Konstantinidis, 1962) and their potential function as a unity of hospitality.

The modern "Xenia" aspires to remain a lively condenser of human activity in a place which, especially during summer months, accommodates thousands of swimmers and holiday makers. It aspires to form an articulation between the old "Xenia" and a modern unity of hospitality, an entity capable of covering the majority of the necessary comforts without aggravating the area to a large extent. The new units have been planned targeting to their incorporation in the natural landscape and are based on the continuous need of reducing the ecological imprint of the new constructions. It also targets to form an incentive and a cause in order to redefine the modern hospitality and its benefits, the way it forms the space of a hotel both internally and externally. An ephemeral habitation which negotiates the terms of familiar and unfamiliar creating a hybrid that intercedes between the built environment and the natural landscape.