Ophthalteca

Add To Collection

Ophthalteca

Firm

Aristotheke

Type

Commercial › Exhibition Center

STATUS

Concept

SIZE

10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Photos

Aristotelis Dimitrakopoulos (32)

The diagram of prevailing winds may be read in the organization of openings. From the seafront, a thin and vertical elevation is laid in parallel to the topographic contours, a tall and vertical gesture masking the linear, elongated massing. Here may be a project on ambivalence, as no front facade exists and no hierarchy is set between elevations. All faces somehow deviate any senses of frontality, yet all of them display a certain illusion of frontality.

Interior spaces host here an ineffable battle of vanishing points, of overlapping perspectives, announcing thus scenarios of specular escape from a building envelope that otherwise holds the merely neutral, with no further specificity. The entrant is metaphorically pulled out of the structure simply by way of dissecting outward vistas, offered through varied openings. Their diversified arrangement generates a dramatic interiority of contrasting light patterns, unified to a multi-story entity that welcomes art installations + social events. Architecture is thus dematerialized, emphasizing its locus and re-uniting to the natural landscape throughout.
This is an ‘i-am-not-architect's' design, a mere envelope of restricted gestures. The rather numb planar diagram embeds large expanses of enclosed space into the climatic mandates of harsh direct sun exposure and restless winds, in a context of bold rock formations and ascending topography. Indeed, the diagram of prevailing winds may be read in the organization of openings.
Here is a project on ambivalence, as no front facade exists and no hierarchy is set between elevations. All faces somehow deviate any senses of frontality, yet all of them display a certain illusion of frontality. From the seafront, a thin and vertical elevation is laid parallel to the topographic contours, a tall and vertical gesture, masking the linear, elongated massing. A lineage of parallel yet offset ‘apertures' is camouflaged as an imposing sequence of freestanding walls that is further juxtaposed to modern-ish window-frame protrusions developing over the opposite masonry front. These three "erker" overhangs from the main volume, directed laterally and perpendicularly to the main axis of view to the sea, thus turning the entire scheme sideways, may be analyzed as three fingers with their three nails, derived and studied on the basis of byzantine iconography depicting the left hands and gesturing fingers of saint figures. Comprising in three greater (in scale) entities the openings that correspond to the entire side elevation, this arrangement reworks the maximum ratio of open-to-closed surface as prescribed by local building code restrictions concerning facade design. The punctured solidity of the overall ensemble, falsified by a grid of quadrates - openings reminiscent of the ultimate window archetype (an abstracted square divided in four by a cross, the tentative frame) - offers gasps of natural light even to the deepest quarters of the composition.

Product Spec Sheet

Were your products used?

Join as a manufacturer to add your products.

Collaborating Firms

Was your firm involved? Add it now.

Team

Were you involved? Add yourself.

Keep Exploring Architizer by Creating a Free Account or Logging in.

Ophthalteca

Ophthalteca

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team