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Competition Piraeus Tower 2010 - Tempus Fugit
Competition Piraeus Tower 2010 - Tempus Fugit
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Competition Piraeus Tower 2010 - Tempus Fugit
Type
Competition Piraeus Tower 2010 - Changing the Face/Facades ReformationTEMPUS
FUGIT
The
competition concerns the redesign of the façade of an imposing modernist
edifice, located in the port city of Pireaus, erected during the period of the
military dictatorship.
The
proposal opts for the re-occupation of the Tower as a vertical park, returning
the structure to civic democracy and promoting the wider reclamation of similar
abandoned high rise buildings as vertical gardens.A self-seeded climbing plant has already taken up residence in Piraeus
Tower, the unfinished 30-year-old structure caught in a never-ending state of
arrested development. The new tenant's rich foliage has inundated the building
site. The sea air maintains high humidity levels in this area, leading to the
rapid growth of this green mesh which, having climbed the stairs and penetrated
the pipes and conduits of the mechanical fittings, has managed to push aside
the hastily placed glass panes of the facades, thus infiltrating every nook and
cranny of the building. Though this incomplete construction gives the
impression of a desolate ruin, it offers the same impressions as a stroll
through a forest – and just like the ruins of classical Greek temples, the
natural environment is indifferent to the passage of time. A ruin is a form of building
which cannot be damaged by wear, since by its very nature it stands outside
time. IT’S TIME TO ACTTime, it seems, is of the essence. We are speaking of
the enigmatic, arbitrary process of the reciprocal interaction between the
synthetic and the natural. A constant exchange is occurring between natural and
man-made environments, in which distinct natural processes remain independent
to the same degree that a ruin remains indifferent to the passage of time,
precisely because it is constantly redefining its identity. In this case, a
clash of titans is under way, equal to the battle waged between our own
“sleeping giant” and the intimidating presence of unforgiving nature, which
takes every opportunity to regain that which has been violently torn from her.
Her power is such that a thin sliver of land has managed to capture this giant,
who is entrapped and therefore powerless to make the slightest effort to regain
control, thus surrendering to thick webs of green ivy.THE TOWN’S VERTICAL GARDEN Perhaps the battle against decay has been won, and so,
a bare skeleton can become the vessel of the transience of human lives. The
modern urban daze flooding international city centres has not spared the city
of Piraeus, and
has deprived its residents of any free leisure space. Piraeus does not need yet another privately
owned building, on the contrary, it needs green space. At a press conference, the Mayor
of Piraeus noted: “The Tower comprises by
far the best new vertical park of the city, which residents can visit,
following a vertical path through verdant levels and stairwells while admiring
the boundless view of the Attica basin.”
History seems to be repeating itself, since even this discussion of the gradual
reclamation of nature out of the man-made environment, reminds us that nature
is simply marking time until the moment when she will once again try to reclaim
what is hers.
FUGIT
The
competition concerns the redesign of the façade of an imposing modernist
edifice, located in the port city of Pireaus, erected during the period of the
military dictatorship.
The
proposal opts for the re-occupation of the Tower as a vertical park, returning
the structure to civic democracy and promoting the wider reclamation of similar
abandoned high rise buildings as vertical gardens.A self-seeded climbing plant has already taken up residence in Piraeus
Tower, the unfinished 30-year-old structure caught in a never-ending state of
arrested development. The new tenant's rich foliage has inundated the building
site. The sea air maintains high humidity levels in this area, leading to the
rapid growth of this green mesh which, having climbed the stairs and penetrated
the pipes and conduits of the mechanical fittings, has managed to push aside
the hastily placed glass panes of the facades, thus infiltrating every nook and
cranny of the building. Though this incomplete construction gives the
impression of a desolate ruin, it offers the same impressions as a stroll
through a forest – and just like the ruins of classical Greek temples, the
natural environment is indifferent to the passage of time. A ruin is a form of building
which cannot be damaged by wear, since by its very nature it stands outside
time. IT’S TIME TO ACTTime, it seems, is of the essence. We are speaking of
the enigmatic, arbitrary process of the reciprocal interaction between the
synthetic and the natural. A constant exchange is occurring between natural and
man-made environments, in which distinct natural processes remain independent
to the same degree that a ruin remains indifferent to the passage of time,
precisely because it is constantly redefining its identity. In this case, a
clash of titans is under way, equal to the battle waged between our own
“sleeping giant” and the intimidating presence of unforgiving nature, which
takes every opportunity to regain that which has been violently torn from her.
Her power is such that a thin sliver of land has managed to capture this giant,
who is entrapped and therefore powerless to make the slightest effort to regain
control, thus surrendering to thick webs of green ivy.THE TOWN’S VERTICAL GARDEN Perhaps the battle against decay has been won, and so,
a bare skeleton can become the vessel of the transience of human lives. The
modern urban daze flooding international city centres has not spared the city
of Piraeus, and
has deprived its residents of any free leisure space. Piraeus does not need yet another privately
owned building, on the contrary, it needs green space. At a press conference, the Mayor
of Piraeus noted: “The Tower comprises by
far the best new vertical park of the city, which residents can visit,
following a vertical path through verdant levels and stairwells while admiring
the boundless view of the Attica basin.”
History seems to be repeating itself, since even this discussion of the gradual
reclamation of nature out of the man-made environment, reminds us that nature
is simply marking time until the moment when she will once again try to reclaim
what is hers.
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