2. STAVROS
NIARCHOS
FOUNDATION
CULTURAL
CENTER
SNFCC is the largest and most complex building construction project in recent Greek history. As one of Athens’earliest seaports on Faliro Bay, Kallithea has
always had a strong relationship with the water. At present, however, despite its proximity, there is no view of the sea from the site. To restore this, an artificial
hill is being created at the south (seaward) end of the site. The sloping park will culminate in the cultural centre building, giving it spectacular views towards
the sea. Both opera and library are combined in one building, with a public space, known as the Agora, providing access and connections between the two
main facilities. The opera wing will be composed of two auditoria, one (450 seats) dedicated to traditional operas and ballets, the other (1400 seats) for more
experimental performances. The library is intended not only as a place for learning and preserving culture, but also as a public resource, a space where cul-
ture is truly accessible to share and enjoy. The entirely glass-walled library reading room sits on top of the building just underneath the canopy roof. A square
horizontal transparent box, it will enjoy 360-degree views of Athens and the sea. The site’s visual and physical connection with water will continue in the park
with a new canal that will run along a north–south, main pedestrian axis, the Esplanade. The canopy roof provides essential shade and will be topped with
10.000 sq m of photovoltaic cells, enough to generate 1.5 megawatt of power for the library and opera house. This field of cells should allow the building to
be self-sufficient in energy terms during normal opening hours. Wherever possible, natural ventilation will be used. The visual connection with the water will
continue to the park, where it will focus on a channel to the side of the Esplanade, the main pedestrian axis of the site, in the north-south direction.
3. The Greek National Opera will now have a true world-class opera and ballet theater—its first home ever. The
main auditorium’s (1,400 seats) world-class acoustics and mechanical capabilities will accommodate the most
demanding international and local productions. The facilities also present the GNO with opportunities to
strengthen its educational and outreach programs, while a smaller experimental (black box) theater (400 seats)
can host more intimate and avant-garde productions. This is going to be the largest Opera House in Europe.
SNFCC - THE OPERA HOUSE
SNFCC - THE LIBRARY
The new state-of-the-art facilities will allow the National Library of Greece to broaden its mission and scope
and assume a dual and expanded role; it will continue to be a research and study center for academics and
students, but it will also function as an all-inclusive public resource, offering a variety of educational and cul-
tural programming to children and adults based on similar projects that have been successfully implemented
in public libraries across Greece and abroad. The NLG will also become an important venue for exhibitions of
its holdings, as well as other traveling exhibitions. Selections of the NLG’s manuscripts will be exhibited on a
rotational basis, affording visitors the opportunity to view Greece’s treasures and cultural heritage.
4. The Project concerns a 1000 bedroom Development comprising of a 4 Star
Hotel and NCO Accommodation with all associated amenities and facilities
The Guest Accommodation has two distinct categories:
• The NCO Wing, for medium to long term accommodation for Non Commis-
sioned Officers and comprises 600 King Rooms. The users will be all male and
the occupancy on a one per room basis.
• The Hotel Wing is planned to be a commercial hotel for the short to medium
term stays of members of the Armed Forces and their families and comprises
120 King Rooms, 80 Double Queen Rooms and 200 one bedroom Suites.
The Hotel Complex is supported by:
• Entrance Lobbies and Receptions, separate for each Hotel , Shared Guest
Circulation
Areas and Lounges
• Food and Beverage Areas
• Function Banqueting and Meeting Spaces
• Recreation Facilities, separate for men and women
• Retail Outlets
• Mosque and Imam Accommodation
• Support Areas comprising Administration, Food Preparation, Laundry,
House Keeping, Workshops, E&M Areas, Employees Facilities, Goods Receiv-
ing, Storages, Waste Storage and Disposal.
Out of the various solutions that were suggested in the previous stage of the
design, what was finally chosen was the creation of an extended base in the
shape of an“eye”on the lower levels (basement, ground floor and mezzanine)
and two separate towers of 10 floors each, for guest accommodation, located
along the facades of the base.
The base levels are compact since they accommodate the entirety of the
heavy functions (lobbies, all shared facilities and support areas), whereas the
upper floors are elongated having limited depth, in order to offer the maxi-
mum facade development for natural lighting and vista.
The centre of the eye is the iris; the centre of the base of the building is
marked by an open-air water feature, around which the shared guest circula-
tion areas of the complex are located, granting access to the individual func-
tional sections. Two symmetrical open-air stairways of great width, leading
from the level of the surroundings to the mezzanine, have been added in the
extension of the towers’footprint.
The open-aired stairways are connected with the mezzanine lobbies via
the central circulation area. The Mosque is located on this level and can be
accessed via one of the roofless stairways or via the central circulation area.
Behind the Mosque is located the Imam
Non Commissioned Officers’ Accommodation and Hotel Abu Dhabi - U.A.E.
5. MCA is situated in the very center of Athens, where public open
space is scare and the building density is high. The museum’s exist-
ing 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 light-
ing 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 ele-
ments 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 al-
ludes 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 consid-
ered to be the first sculptures to be made of Parian marble and an
important influence and inspiration for the modern minimal move-
ment. 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 deduc-
tive 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.
MCA 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 trans-
forming 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.
museum of cycladitic art
6. The Level 3 Façade Aesthetic Improvement project involves the Design and Build of a new
inclined aluminium façade cladding of Main Terminal Building’s internal 3rd Level (overlooking
the retail corridor of the Departures area) and the masking of offices’windows through the use
of horizontally placed shading louvers in order to enhance the ambience throughout the whole
retail area and provide an aesthetic new experience to passengers and visitors.
Athens International Airport
Façade Aesthetic Improvement
Main Terminal Building - Level 3 - Internal Facade
7. Located in the northern side of the Cyclades, Tinos is the third largest
island of island group. Well known as the“Island of Madonna”, Tinos
is the greatest center of pilgrimage in Greece. Within its landscape of
rugged, rocky hills lay more than 40 villages, like marble fragments of
an ancient statue scattered across the hills. The island is famous for its
unspoiled architecture, its picturesque villages and beautiful scenery.
More than a thousand churches can be found on slopes and hilltops,
a thousand or so dovecotes, while masterpieces of local architecture
and tens of derelict windmills are found in its gullies and valleys. The
scenery is lined by thousands of kilometers of dry stonewalls that
make the landscape visually unique.
The residence is situated on steep sloped rocky plot facing south
overlooking the Aegean Sea. It is a single-level structure and has a
surface of 198 square meters. The location allows benefiting from
wonderful and panoramic views of the landscape and seascape.
Our goal was to integrate the building into the landscape like it was
part of it. The living space is covered by a rimless pool that produces a
visual effect of water extending to the horizon, vanishing and merg-
ing with the seascape. From a distance especially if viewed from the
path of approach, on a higher ground, the only visible feature of the
house is the water of the pool. The water during the day reflects the
surrounding rock formations and during the night the star filled night
sky. The most of the visible construction materials were found in the
vicinity and were used to make the house‘disappear’into the scenery.
Local techniques were also borrowed like the characteristic dry wall
construction found in abundance in the island. This technique was
implemented with minor modifications; on the side embankment
walls in each side of the pool volume. The local materials have a low
impact on the environment while also being very efficient as insulat-
ing materials. The rear walls are made of retained earth that regulates
the temperature. The pool acting as roof provides insulation and
protection from solar radiation and heat transmittance.
We wanted to make a house fused with its surroundings, an invisible
oasis hidden from the unsuspected eyes. The house is acts almost like
an observation point as it clings to the rocks and oversees the dra-
matic cascading landscape.
mirage
8. jumbo tripoli
Jumbo stores is the biggest toy store chain in Greece and one of the biggest toy
retailers in Europe with sixty six stores: Fifty four in Greece, four in Cyprus, eight
in Bulgaria, two in Romania and approximately 3.700 employees. Our goal was
to create within a very short deadline their new store in Tripoli Arcadia. On our
first trip on the field we laser scanned inside out the existing building and based
on the point cloud information we recreated a 3d model in order to provide the
constructor with accurate demolition plans.
The architectural solution needed to be of high quality and good design to at-
tract children and families and become a valued part of the local environment.
Poor quality, unimaginative space will not be attractive to children, will not be
valued by the local community and will fall in to decay and waste. Good design
is a good investment. We used all of the existing building structural parts such as
the columns, footings and waffle slabs which were all covered with metallic sand-
wich panels. The whole building looks from away and while aproaching like a chil-
dren’s toy. The surrounding were also taken into consideration providing outdoor
children parks. The coloring used matches the Jumbo stores logos.
Following the architectural solution, when the structural and mep routes were
solved we clash detected all of the disciplines avoiding unwanted surprises
during construction phase. The casework positions were arranged according to
clients demands. The retail customer’s route inside the store after entry was de-
signed in a way that one has to go through all the store sections until exit.
9. a31
villa This country villa consists out of two separated houses each with its
own swimming pool and unobstructed view. It is located approximately
fifty kilometers outside Athens in Marathon area.
Two family generations with seven persons in total will populate the
house spaces. The privacy offered can be spoiled by one exterior con-
crete stair that connects the two families.
The front façade is covered with a parametric curtain system out of
lightweight concrete blocks. It hides the building interior private spaces
and reduces road noise while offering on the same time a distinctive
exterior look. During daytime the sunshine produces various types of
shadings on the façade and extreme shadow patterns in the interior.
When night falls colored spot lights from the bottom of the concrete
curtain wash with upward light the structure creating another unique
appearance. The main entrance is also made from the same material
and one has to push and rotate a portion of the structure in order to
proceed inside the building.
The name of the project was inspired from the street address.
10. matesion biogas plant
Matesion Biogas plant is located in Kozani Greece. This prototype recycling facility consists
out of nine separate structures all connected through mechanical, electrical and plumping
networks. All of the structures are autonomous giving the ability to the contractor to relocate
them finding the best fit for each plant created. The study also produces automatic reports on
running costs and maintenance for each new layout.
Special materials were used to cope with the extra high temperatures and the toxic substanc-
es produced. Flexible pipes and submerged pumps working non stop recycling the organic
waste. The plot land was also reinforced to sustain the fully loaded truck’s weight bringing the
raw material. All environmental and safety measures applied.
When operational the plant produces energy for five hundred homes. The final waste is less
than ten per cent of the raw material volume and is safe to be exported to a landfill.
11. When we started the design process we noticed that the site was a so-called
terrain vague, urbanistically speaking a no man’s land with remnants of
industrial installations. While it had some elements of exterior design like the
sculpture garden on its west boundary with the prominent sculpture feature,
on its south east boundary the amphitheater and on the north east bound-
ary the art resource center. These facilities although present within the strong
boundaries of the site appear disconnected and the site gives the image of
a vacant land. According to the established schedule the site was to become
a part of the architecturally organized and well defined city. Our aim was to
convert this area into a prominent and recognizable district within the urban
landscape of Tai Pei. For that reason we decided that we wanted a building
that will act as landmark within the city and could become an icon for the
new image of Tai Pei.
We decided since the beginning that we did not want to merge the two pro-
grams in one but instead we wanted two separated programs consecutively
two separate museums that will develop a dialectic relationship between
them.
We followed different patterns of organization for the two museums. The
children’s art museum is organized and structured in a free fluid manner in
comparison with the more rigid ortho-kanonic organization of the art mu-
seum located below it. The reason is that we felt that it was more appropriate
to give its users the children the freedom of exploration and the spontaneity
of discovery.
The starting conceptual model for the children museum was a pencil sharp-
ening of a children crayon pencil. We thought of this object because it exem-
plifies the first artistic explorations of all of us and because of its unmistakable
familiarity with our youth. We proceeded by making a shell of the sharpening
from which the children museum roof was developed. This roof became the
sculptural element situated within the landscape.
The main art museum was envisaged as a rectangular volume a casing, a
chamber with clear and recognizable circulation and orientation. We lifted
the park ground and carefully placed our volume underneath. That way the
much larger adult museum does not domain the landscape but it manages to
become the landscape as the only visible features are the glass facades that
open along the east west axis. The children museum becomes the crown-
ing of this artificial topography elevated form the rest of the landscape. The
‘crown’is directed connected to the urban fabric via the bridge. This elevated
walkway not only connects the landscape to the city but also becomes an
architectural promenade connecting the train station with the developed site.
The train station in urban and physical terms is the nearest and busiest con-
nector of Tai Pei to the rest of Taiwan thus making the new park the preferable
destination. In the same axis that bridge and museum form also lies the cable
car lines that connect the park to the southern part of the city establishing it
as a middle ground, the stasis between moments the resting point between
destinations.
We wanted the museum to be a formal and spatial experience that announc-
es to all who enter that this is the place for experiment, a place to leave be-
hind assumptions and conventions , a place that lays to its users open to the
surprises and challenges that are necessarily presented by the new art.
The entry level of the adult art museum was designed as a connector of the
two programs. It is the level which the user can visit without the need to visit
any of the exhibition spaces. It becomes a real place not only a space, a place
for meetings for rest for communication and exchange of ideas and informa-
tion. Because of the commercial part of the program situated here and the
opening of the level to west It becomes a sunken square bursting from activ-
ity and life.
Tai Pei Contemporary Art Museum
