PIRAEUS TOWER, Elaionas

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PIRAEUS TOWER, Elaionas

Firm

smyrlis architects

Type

Commercial › Office Retail

STATUS

Concept

CC2011
What was the
competition for:http://www.greekarchitects.gr/en/high-rise/piraeus-tower-%E2%80%93-a-sleeping-giant-id2696 A Tall Building
at the port of Piraeus – the Piraeus Municipality belongs in the urban area of
the city of Athens which has a population of 4,000,000 – is abandoned for more
than 30 years. It is 22-storey building, 84 m. tall and it is known as “Piraeus
Tower”. It is often called as “the sleeping giant” due to its
abandonment. The only tower of the area is “sleeping” in one of the bigger
ports of Mediterranean that presents a dynamic growth the last decades.
There is a challenge, therefore, in order for the Tower to become a landmark at
the port of Piraeus and to be highlighted, with its modernisation, as one of
the most important architectural buildings not only for the city of Piraeus but
for the whole city of Athens.
Each proposal shall show a consistent and clear position about how the tower is
conversed with the Piraeus urban landscape and how this new “view” takes part
in and partially forms the relation between the Port, as an important way of
entrance and exit of the capital, and the urban area of Athens.
Objectives
The objectives of the competition To
include the building in the urban landscape through the design proposal and to
highlight it as the landmark for the wider area. Το
gather various architectural ideas that will allow the distinction of the best
possible proposals for the façades reformation and the Tower general image.

B
Mention - N.Smyrlis - D.Giannisis - K. Papanikolaou - F. Soulos
http://www.greekarchitects.gr/competition2010/piraeus/gr/b_Mention.4 Elaionas - Olive
grove
The olive trees
that once covered a big part of Attica now tend to disappear and become symbols
of the past. The olive tree connects with our history, carries a rich symbolism
of (euphoria, wisdom, peace, fertility etc) and is a source of inspiration from
antiquity. We propose to cover the facades of the building with olives trees
planted in hanging pots. The busy and overloaded center of Piraeus acquires a
vertical park which takes the form of our familiar olive grove. Olive trees are
redisplayed in the city as powerful elements that not only constitute the view
of an artificial landscape, but also replace big surfaces of greenery that with
difficultly can be recovered in the already overloaded existing structure. The
proposal attempts to emphasize the importance of greenery in the modern city
projecting it to all directions. The building stands in a highly dense
environment as an artificial planted hill, like it happens with other hills of
the Athens basin. The greenery is not just an element that decorates the view
but a planting cultivation and production that highlights the features of the
site it belongs.
Each building is required to highlight the
features of the site belongs. The tower with the planted side is an idea to
emulate the Mediterranean-Greek landscape. It works as a natural filter to
control the shading and the cooling of the building while at the same time it
becomes a breathing space. We did not want the greenery to be the only element
that decorates the side of the building, but a planting for cultivation and
production. The organized planting view of thousand olive trees corresponds to
50 acres of olive groves (that corresponds to a production of 25,000 liters of
olive oil per year).
The Building
The basic trunk
of the building is 'dressed' with a prismatic metal structure particularly made
to carry pots with the olive trees. The gridlines of the structure thickens or
thins out by width depending on the orientation of the facades, so that the
shading and the lighting of the internal spaces to be controlled. The same
structure organizes the flow of water of (rain and watering) and a system of
harvesting fruits. The water flows from flower pot to flower pot, watering the
trees from top to bottom, to eventually collect it on the terrace-garden on the
third floor. During the period of harvest, specially shaped nets are suspended
in the metallic manufacture for the collection of fruits. The nets change the appearance
of a ‘camouflaged’ landscape that reminds the city the different periods of
rural life (a collection of fruits during the winter season from November until
January).
The glass shell
that separates the interior from the exterior part is part of a metal
structure, located at a short distance from the body of the building and brings
the flower pots with trees. From the interior of the office spaces the trees
are seen as shades while the glass segments of the manufacture provide multiple
views of the environment and include exit doors for the caring of plants.
The volume of
the rectangular base (with the shops in its interior) is planted in the
quarters like the beginning of the olive grove that vertically extends itself
on the side. It is treated as a second landscape, that which transmits to the
interior and the building floors. The stone’s lining refers to traditional
landscapes while the removal of all closed spaces at the street level allows
the unrestricted movement of pedestrians in all directions. From the stone
lining are rhythmically removed stones that are turned into a shell form into a
perforated skin that diffuses sections of light in the inside part of the
stores which at nighttime it discreetly emits light to the city. We believe
that the ground floor is a roofed square, a continuation of the basic movements
of the broader sections of the city where it belongs, a growth of the market
and a passage where the wandering and ephemeral peddlers (a characteristic of
the region) become a part of the purchasing/buying motion.
At the roof the
construction is finalized with a series of the same structure which is covered
with crystals (for lights) and surfaces of photovoltaic panels. This series aims to create an intense
horizontal line of light that will be perceived at nighttime from a distance
indicating the position and the size of the building (like a lighthouse). What
is also suggested is an additional and more discrete/ subtle lighting from
vertical lights on the edge of the prisms that bear the flower pots with olive
trees.