PIRAEUS CULTURAL COAST BY 10AM ARCHITECTURE

The Museum of Underwater Archaeology is based on three main principles:

Transforming a SYMBOL of a post-industrial era into a SYMBOL of cultural infrastructure.

UTILITY – creating human scale and dynamic visual and communication connections from a distance and in close-up view.

ECOLOGICAL and HEDONISTIC SUSTAINABILITY – using the natural and climate resources and aesthetic emotional potential of the site.

Methods of metaphor, hyperbolisation and contrast are used for achieving memorable results. The materials and technologies used are of high innovative value and responsive to the natural surroundings.

The main concept is based on the idea of a WATER BUBBLE and its metamorphoses and influences on physical matter since its creation and coming to surface.

The water bubble is a herald of energy, the cycles of life in nature and a symbol of the strive for progress. Underwater archaeology raises water bubbles in a literal and poetic sense of the word. The underwater archaeology is a process of transforming matter and consciousness in time.

The purpose of transformation of the silo structure into a Museum of Underwater Archaeology is to create a metaphor of dual perception of the image simultaneously as a land museum of underwater archaeology and an exponent in an underwater museum of land archaeology.

The idea is to create a sense of lightness and softness of forms, as is we are in an underwater world. The soft and white forms create a sensation of Greece and the Mediterranean, the wind and the sun. Sharp and dynamic shadows lighten up the atmosphere and brighten the mood as emotional challenges.

The opportunity to climb up and to find panoramas on the edge between water and land is more than a challenge and bestows with supreme pleasure the visit to the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, a part of the cultural coast of Piraeus.

 

 

Location:Vouneuil-sur-Vienne, Greece

Architects: 10AM Architecture

VILLA F BY HORNUNG AND JACOBI ARCHITECTURE

The site of the holiday home in Rhodes/Greece yet possess characteristics and outstanding qualities, which we only attempted to frame with our design. The site is located three meters above a coastal road, which is bordered by a natural stonewall that has been equally continued for our proposal.

On the one hand the continuation of the found wall generates a high level of privacy, while on the other hand it relates to the given situation in this area, which we were tempted to preserve as much as possible.The holiday home was designed for a couple.

They wished a separate area for guests, which we mostly embedded in the given topography by integrating the shady tree population and without generating an equally visible volume. At first sight the typology of the building seems to be strange compared with the context.

However this first impression will be refuted by the choreography of the building, which is precisely orientated at the context. While from a formal point of view the building relates to the found eroded rocks and the washed away shoreline, the entrance was generated by an interruption in the continuous natural stonewall, which leads one at first „under“ the site.

Skylights show the path up to the main living area. The generated twist focuses our sight towards the ocean, whereas the surrounding walls only serve as a frame of the context. Thus a spatial division of the different uses was avoided where possible, as well as a differentiation of interior- and exterior spaces.

Most important was to prevent a limitation of the magnificent view. The challenge in this design lies in construction and the involved climate technology. The construction of the building above ground is planned as a prefabricated timber structure finished with a white plaster, including the roof. 

Because all surfaces are inclined and the temperature in that area does not go below zero degrees, this finishing is doubtlessly possible, which is proofed since many years in traditional old buildings close to that site.

The lightweight construction was chosen because of the way it will be used and climatic circumstances. As the holiday home will be mainly used for spontaneous short-term visits, a quick cool down is necessary. Thus long time periods of cooling down and saving, as it occurs with massive construction, is not advantageous in that case.

Through a mechanically controlled opening in the roof a well-known chimney effect will be activated, which starts at the massive base plate in the garage from where integrated cable ducts lead cooled air through the building.

An additional cooling effect will be provided by the evaporation of the pool. The triangle-shaped photovoltaics on the roof provides the building with energy and enables a self-sufficient living.

 

 

Location: Rhodes, Greece 

Architects: Hornung and Jacobi Architecture 

Project Team: Peter Thomas Hornung, Elsa Katharina Jacobi, Jan Escher 

Size: 220qm 

Year: 2011

MUSEUM OF CYCLADIC ART BY KOIS ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS

“Museum of Cycladic Art is one of the most important museums in Athens and sole ambassador of the Cycladic civilization and artistic legacy.

Our goal was to reveal its identity and expose it to the wider public by transforming it to an urban icon not only visually as a semantic carrier but also functionally by increasing the permeability of the building from the street to the interior. MCA is situated in the very center of Athens, where public open space is scare and the building density is high.

The museum’s existing façade is reminiscent of museum typologies’ facades of the international style, encased within the tight urban fabric. The larger portion of the facade area is covered with reflective glass panels which on their inner side are covered with rigid panels to prevent sun to reach the exhibition rooms where steady conditions of lighting are required.

The function of the windows becomes secondary. We wanted the site and the museum to realize its potential. We designed a façade that will work with the current one and will enhance the museum’s presence. The proposed façade is designed to provide shade and privacy in the desired location, act as a thematic scheme for the museum and constitutes a pause to the visual ambiguity of the aggregation of buildings that comprise the street facade.

We envisaged the museum façade to float above the street in order to create a clear and unmistakable entry point, to draw people from outside, to provide shade, shelter and a n urban meeting point The proposed façade creates a new entrance and connect the atrium that is flooded with light during the day with the street.

The atrium with the café and the nearby shop becomes the destination of the route, an oasis of light and vegetation in the interior of a building block. This inner open space building provides for ‘stasis’ in a state of constant urban kinesis. The façade is open during the museum opening hours letting the interior to act as an extension of the street, and closed when the museum is closing.

This periodical movement not only becomes an architectonic event introducing different degrees of access and permeability but also becomes an urban event. The new façade comprises of an array of vertical elements in a calculated synthesis. The careful arrangement of the vertical elements resolves certain problems of transparency, privacy and lighting conditions manifested in the previous façade.

The linear synthesis was inspired by natural Cycladic rock formations and alludes to the fragmented landscape of their origin. The outline of an anthropomorphic figure is created by the topological differences of the elements of the synthesis. It is a tectonic version of the Early Cycladic (2700 BC) marble head figurine, of Spedos variety, part of the collection of the MCA.

The Cycladic sculptures all possess certain features –canonical, proportional and simplistic, are considered to be the first sculptures to be made of Parian marble and an important influence and inspiration for the modern minimal movement. They are sculptured with such skill and lightness that can only be rivaled by the touch of the sea on the pebbles of the shore.

The Cycladic head alone is an icon for the Cycladic civilization and culture but most importantly a timeless symbol of artistic deductive ability and simplicity that has affected artists like Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi and Henry Moore. The topological differences of the facade elements that form the ‘’head’’ create interplay of light and shadow that changes and progresses as the day passes and the path of the sun is captured on the façade” Kois associated architects.

 

Location: Athens, Greece 
Architects: Kois associated architects 
Principal Archiect: Kois Stelios 
Project Leader: Patsiaouras Nikos 
Project Team: Fillipos Manolas, Gabriel Barbas, Konstantinos Giannakis, Mariellina Stavrou, Despina Sotiriou, Visualisation: Mir , Kaa 
Area: 850 m2 
Year: 2013