that spaces for play are the fundamental public spaces for all.
and therefore their presence at a neighbourhood scale is imperative.
In Athens today, on the one side children’s everyday life offers limited opportunities for outdoor play, exploration, development of imagination and ingenuity as the time left to school children for play is minimal.
On the other side, the existing spaces for play- approximately 130 in the City of Athens’ ownership- are repetitive, standardised and the majority, in a degraded condition.
Only half of the spaces are currently certified for meeting safety standards with respect to equipment, construction and facilities.
They lack character, definition,
and constitute samples of a random and unplanned implementation process.
Spaces in which social development, movement skills and team spirit are enhanced
The PXATHENS research study based upon the in depthrecording
and assessment of the existing situation of spaces for play in the southern and central districts of Athens, in terms of use,
condition
existing equipment which for 19 playgrounds is nothing else than
and posed the primary question
in turn we formulated a strategy for their overall redesign.
The strategy is summarised in the following principles: - projection of references,- places for all ages,- promotion of multi-dimensional play,- identification of character,- folding the ground,- negotiation of borders,- creation of a network.
Which leads to the actual architectural intervention.
Due to the bad economic situation of the city of Athens, the municipality has no funds to upkeep its playgrounds. The PXAthens project developed as an private initiative in the public realm.
Of the non-for-profit organisation ‘Paradeigmatos Harin’- in collaboration with our practice.
On the basis of the research study we reached an agreement with the Municipality of Athens which is supporting but not actually funding the project.
During the collaboration with the municipality we defined several spaces for intervention.
And in parallel in partnership with PX we achieved to obtain the sponsorship for 6 specific playgrounds’ interventions mainly by the SNF.
We are currently working on the planning of the initial 6 playgrounds of which implementation is scheduled to commence in the beginning of 2013.
Starting with the pilot project of 6 spacesan expandable model in the central neighbourhoods of Athens is being established.
Each of the six nexuses of the first phase of intervention is defined by the conscious effort to comprehend the particular characteristics of each urban context.
Their interconnection will define a physical and digital network of play, to which everyone, -young and old- will have unlimited -real but also electronic- access.
We aimed to bring to the fore each site’s 'identity' highlighting to the youth the urban, social and cultural value, the places of their everyday lives have. More specifically, the six properties along a pedestrian street
defined the 'Six Thresholds' as a space for play.
The proximity to a church dedicated to Prophet Elijah, who according to the Christian Orthodox tradition had to be built upon hilltops
and the obvious manipulations upon the foothills of a no-longer readable hill became reference to the 'Hill’s Plateaus'.
A plot at the corner of an urban block within a densely built Athenian neighbourhood
was treated as a 'Lot' - a reference to undeveloped pieces of land during the city’s rebuilding of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
A crossroads with a serene, almost domestic atmosphere was rearticulated in 'Three Corners'.
with a serene, almost domestic atmosphere was rearticulated in 'Three Corners'.
The internal void of a typical urban block,
with its impressive tall trees and hidden entrance, defined the 'Secret Garden'.
In the case of a church square
the existing dense, forest vegetation remnants of a former grove, identified the 'Forest Square'.
All of them in combination become footprints of new identities for public spaces.
This is the view towards the south and the 2nd community of Athens
This eventually superimpose another way for the yound to read and relate to their so-familiar city.
On the occasion of the 13th Venice Biennale
Each object is constructed with the prescribed materials for the actual space for play in Athens’ centre and is placed respectively in the exhibition space within six voids that relate to the real urban condition of the real site, in the real city.
The glass reinforced concretePXA 01 'Six Thresholds' artefact, framed by neighbouring structures on its two sides, allows the cross crawling and sliding in the same way the pedestrian street on the foothills of the Acropolis allows its crossing.
