Hellenicon Metropolitan Park, Athens
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Architectural Competition
client: Ministry of the Environment
date: 2004
location: Athens
architectural design: YAP, Atelier Yannis Tsiomis, M. Kantartzis, P. Kougiannou
The park hosts urban uses as well as planted areas. The building activity (housing, office buildings, commercial and cultural centers) is limited to the perimeter of the park, thus securing a unified recreational area of thematic gardens. The network of thematic gardens is defined by the North-South and East-West axes traveling through the park. The new topography, while inspired by the existing landscape, enhances the opening of the park towards the sea. The main runway of the old airport is retained and becomes a central axis of the new design. The building development lays mainly in the perimeter of the park. However, certain cultural and sports facilities are spread throughout the park in existing buildings as well as within a string of new buildings along the old airport runway
The layout of the “urban” part of the park is designed along the following criteria:
- Unification with the surrounding urban fabric
- The offering of a variety of building types so as to encourage interaction between different groups of people
- Unification of the planted recreation areas
- Satisfactory performance of the varying building uses as a coherent whole
- The creation of urban areas with different density.