Author: xza-editor

The Cypriot Wine Museum, located in the heart of the wine-producing countryside in the historic village of Erimi, combines the history and production of wine with the culture and heritage of the region. It has been established in 2004 by owner Anastasia Guy, who transformed a stone building, formerly an inn for wine merchants, into a multidimensional cultural space. The building houses an exhibition on the history of wine, tasting areas, and two outdoor courtyards for music and cultural events.

The museum’s location coincides with a point marking the beginning of vine vineyards and wine production in Europe, with ancient roots dating back more than 5,500 years. It highlights Cyprus’ rich and timeless winemaking heritage.

The Cypriot Wine Museum presents the wine production process from antiquity to the present, showcasing how wine and Commandaria became a way of life, fostering trade relationships and cultural interactions with other Mediterranean people. Housed in a 150-year-old stone building that once served as an inn for wine merchants, the museum embodies the founder’s family history.

The approach to the new extension and addition to a traditionally designed building attempts a juxtaposition of the new and the old in terms of form and materiality. Simultaneously, it proposes a fusion of living styles regarding scale, passages, relationship with nature, shading, light, courtyard preservation, and semi-outdoor spaces.

The architectural proposal involves expanding the wine museum and creating a new three-story building. The placement of the new structure adjacent to the existing one stands discreetly, assuming new functions that enhance the visitor’s experience. The unified facade aims for visual abstraction, accentuating the stone building as a backdrop.

The addition plays a crucial role in improving the functionality and value of the building, offering a modern and functional solution for user needs. The new building “opens up” at street level, inviting visitors into the reception area. At the courtyard level, it rises from the ground as a pilotis, allowing the preservation of the existing stone courtyard and creating a small spa area. On the upper floors, the new building connects to the existing one with bridges, forming seven suites ranging from 30 to 50 sqm each, with balconies for visitors’ accommodation. Finally, on the rooftop, there is a semi-outdoor refreshment area and a swimming pool.

This addition seeks to combine the modern needs of visitors with the existing structure, offering a multifaceted experience that encompasses wine and its history, the culture of wine, flavors and winemaking, interactions and events, festivals and music, meetings and interaction, relaxation and accommodation, cool semi-outdoor spaces, and sunny courtyards, all of which are essentially the environmental elements of this proposal.

ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION FOR THE REGENERATION OF THE SPACE OF THE NEW “ALEXANDRAS” METRO STATION IN ATHENS

THE AXIS, THE CITY AND THE METRO STATIONS

The Avenue of Alexandra is one of the three sides of the large urban triangle traditionally defining the centrality of the city of Athens. The expansion of the metro stations – a new underground network appearing in the urban fabric’s horizon – will mediate new focal points, rearranging the “official centralities”. The Avenue of Alexandra is synonymous with rapid transit and high loads; it mainly intersects, rather than unifies, the areas of the natural landscape with their neighborhoods, as there are no organically evolving public spaces within its expanse. Redevelopment is much needed across its entire front.

The islet that will host the metro, despite its small size, presents an opportunity for the reconstitution of the axis’s significance. In this process, a design paradigm could be created – an urban space methodology that follows environmental, energy, and bioclimatic principles, allowing the lifting of boundaries with open free spaces, and enhancing the sociability of smaller centers and areas, as well as the presence of urban greenery, aiming for the sustainability and resilience of the city.

THE SPECIAL CONSTITUTION OF THE URBAN ISLAND

“Urban islands”, such as the study area, constitute intermediate spaces in the city, which are called upon to evolve from “peripheral supplements” into small centers and to bear the burden of a broader design that must respond to modern environmental and social sustainability demands. A methodology for approaching and designing is proposed, following environmental, energy, and bioclimatic principles, allowing the lifting of boundaries, offering coherence between networks and flows, and enhancing the community of smaller centers and areas, while simultaneously incorporating urban greenery.

Two conditions delineate and influence the shaping of the area. On one hand, the wide straight boulevard, and on the other, the adjacent neighborhood. Therefore, the role of the urban island is twofold: to combine the supralocal and local character and to blend the large scale of the city with the nearby neighborhoods. The proposal aims to highlight both the station on the supralocal axis of Alexandras Avenue and regulate the qualities of the public shared space, allowing the coexistence of urban green continuity with everyday activities.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND URBAN PLANNING COOPERATIONS

The urban planning of the proposal is intertwined with environmental considerations.

The proposal includes the development of green networks, the enhancement of plantings on Alexandras Avenue (systematic planting of intermediate urban islands and double planting on the front of the side sidewalks), the use of public transportation and bicycles (with a restriction of car lanes to 3.00m, instead of 3.50m, and the widening of the bus lane to incorporate a bicycle lane), and the connection of areas to promote social mobility. More specifically, the proposal suggests the reconfiguration of the axis of Thereianou Street with the aim of connecting the study area to the entrance of the park “Pedio tou Areos”. This involves actions such as widening and planting on the northern sidewalk and the creation of a central islet for planting and organized vehicle parking. Furthermore, it is proposed to facilitate access to and from the metro station to the hills of Finopoulou, Strefi, and the area of Gkizi, with the widening of sidewalks and systematic linear planting.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH – 4 SPATIAL AND URBAN TOOLS

The following are used as spatial and urban tools of the small scale: 1. three graded zones, the “metropolitan” pedestrian sidewalk of high traffic, the park, and the promenade, 2. the canopy of three typologies that serves as a tool for drafting a rule of urban homogeneity and a guide for the transition from supralocal to local scale. 3. smaller inclusive spaces, open and accessible to all ages and social groups, are referred to, allowing multifunctionality (rest, sports, recreation, play). 4. urban equipment and public infrastructure are also utilized.

THE BIOCLIMATIC CANOPY

A prominent element and methodological tool of the proposal is the canopy. At an urban level, it operates as a recognizable event, weaving the web, coloring it, shading it, and multiplying its dynamics, signifying the entrances to the metro, public transportation stops, or sitting areas.
It is placed either linearly or in groups, with multiple possibilities, forming smaller or larger reference points. The repetition of the unit allows for adaptation to the slopes of the space under formation. It represents a syntactic rule of urban homogeneity, as it serves as a guide, a channel of connection with nearby environments (parks, squares, traffic flows), and also an urban tool linking broader areas.

CONDITIONS OF BIOCLIMATIC AND ENERGY PLANNING

The proposal is based on the bioclimatic design, emphasizing the economy and utilization of natural resources – air, water, and sunlight – the reconstruction of the natural environment, and the use of orientation to achieve natural cooling and shading.

The canopy, through shading and overlay, either with solar photovoltaic panels (solar umbrella) or with the potential spread of climbing plants, it takes a leading role in the energy and bioclimatic design of the space, enhancing the quality of the microclimate.

MATERIALITY AND LANDSCAPE

The choice of materials that allow breathability and water absorption, the intensive planting of tall trees that allow air to penetrate the lower layers of the urban park, contribute to natural cooling and avoiding the heat island phenomenon, while at the same time preserving the biodiversity of the fauna and flora.

The landscape and planting architecture follow, intensify, and enrich the spatial logic of architectural design. It is based on the principles of biodiversity and the balance of Mediterranean vegetation. The guiding principles include resource efficiency, species resilience, and low maintenance.

In conclusion, the functional modernization of the city with the new metro stations can serve as the starting point for its redefinition. It should be noted that:

– This city, along with the economy of transportation, requires care. It is understood that the relationship between residents and public space is a broader political, institutional, and educational issue, and the positive interaction and the concept established for structures in the city and urban landscapes are considered significant each time.

– The city needs revitalizing stimuli, and the canopies, in their repetition, trace a faint urban sculpture along the axis of Alexandras. Apart from signifying, sheltering, and equipping public space, they can also participate in the alternation of the experience of an executive daily life, be illuminated on everyday life, host an exhibition or an urban event, and connect with distinct memories and new urban experiences.

“Architectural Competition of Ideas for the redevelopment of the common area and the wider area of the new KOLONAKI Metro station”

The Kolonaki Square has undergone at least six redesigns throughout its existence, each change narrating a different approach to public space and reflecting the evolution and character of the area.

The search for the principles of design for the redevelopment of the communal space of Kolonaki Square and the wider area, prompted by the new metro station, is approached through two complementary perspectives:

a. that of contemporaneity, aiming for the design to meet contemporary demands for development while simultaneously considering environmental protection, resource economy, and the facilitation of free access and mobility with environmentally friendly materials and means.

b. that of temporality, seeking to highlight and define the identity of Kolonaki Square as an integral part of the genealogy of Athenian urban squares, a primary public space in a central area with high urban life mobility and significant aesthetic, cultural, and artistic importance.

As the square will connect, via the metro, to destinations beyond its traditional borders, determining its urban identity necessitates emphasizing its self-presentation. The uniqueness of its location, where the slopes of Lycabettus meet, the vibrant presence of the northern sidewalks, the topographical relief extending to Herod Atticus Street and the Panathenaic Stadium, led to the adoption of the N-S axis as the central perceptual axis defining the city’s identity.

The square’s formation relies on the major Lycabettus – Ardittos axis. The vistas, visible from the square, serve as orientation points, providing an understanding of the city’s large scale. Simultaneously, the diagonal routes of the nearby E-W axis (Kanari & Kapsali Str.), connecting Kolonaki to the City Centre, the areas of parks, museums, and Ampelokipoi area, are utilized as a second compositional axis of flow, communication, and approach, forming an informal meeting intersection at the centre of the square’s public space. The entrance and exit of the metro are situated on this axis, contributing to the square as a meeting place, interface, passage, and stop, recalling memories of everyday mobility.

The square’s design is influenced by the flowing topography of Lycabettus hill, creating a 5-meter elevation difference. To maintain a unified reference level that traditionally accommodates the urbanity of public life, allowing freedom of movement, activities, and usage changes, the square is divided into two levels. The upper level outlines a semicircular path with a focal point at Koumpari Str., an emblematic point between the hills—an open walk, the belvedere of the square.

The configuration starts with an introductory plateau at the intersection of P. Ioakim and Skoufa Str.. Subsequently, a descent, an extensive stepped formation with theatrical elements, connects the upper level to the lower level of the square. The central space is defined by the intermediate level, bordering smaller side spaces and returning to the initial plateau. The entrance from Skoufa is marked by the busts of the Filikoi and serves as access to the two-stop elevator.

The main structure in the lower level is slightly inclined and, facing south, creates a sunny central square area. The surrounding stepped formation acts as a colonnade, providing a shaded permeable space in the square and at the metro entrance. The perimeter path is enriched and includes seating and waiting areas, hosting functions such as a café on the north side, sanitary facilities, a kiosk, and a flower shop.

The design extends to the lateral pedestrian paths S-E, creating parks, islets, and “planting hillocks” in between, reinforcing the potential for tall vegetation that also serves as a zone for visual/auditory protection. The square’s size accommodates various urban events, whether free-flowing or gatherings, aligning with the mobility of Kolonaki’s society. The intermediate level can host events, with interactive stations (info-points) planned for presenting the area’s history and events.

Special emphasis is placed on bioclimatic and environmental design, both in the reconstruction of the square’s greenery and in water management. Rainwater is collected from the planted islets, absorbent pavements, and directed to the lower level for reuse as an element of cooling and play in the design.

Materials seek a balance between stability and water permeability, utilizing cold materials with good thermal behaviour.

Key urban and traffic regulations include: on the south side, the decongestion of perimeter traffic by pedestrianizing the southern road and transforming the northwest road into a light traffic route; on the north side, widening the sidewalk and proposing a new pedestrian crossing extension on Tsakalof str.

The proposal is located in the area of Nea Makri, a suburban area, with rich greenery and mostly contained of country houses. In this case, a permanent residence was required from the client.

The residence combines urban characteristics, such as the two-story volume, and the perimeter courtyard, and at the same time, country house characteristics, a large slightly stepped ground floor that opens to the courtyards, a front yard and a lateral one that receives the outdoor areas of the kitchen (outdoor cooking).

The proposal tries to utilize orientation for the appropriate sun exposure and shading. The residence is built under a “roof” that bridges the rear high part with the ground floor, solving the existence of a mandatory roof that the legislation requires. The canopy was designed with a slope to the south in order to:

• Control the penetration of the sun from the two-story rear section.
• Allow the supervision of the upper space with the ground floor.
• Create the gap – a solar chimney that heats the house and allows the illumination of the space.
• Give the possibility to look freely towards the planted roof of the ground floor, providing the feeling of nature and the countryside.

On the ground floor of the residence, the living areas function as a single space. Beyond the central living room, we access the dining area, the kitchen, a bedroom, and a cloakroom. Small height variations, following the soil elevation, provide fixed furniture in the space while separating functions.

The upper floor takes over the private spaces of the family members, leading to two bedrooms, while at the same time, provides access to the planted roof from the loft.

The built-in outdoor equipment along with the swimming pool encourage the living of the residence to spread outside, alternately in sunny or shaded areas, and in different aspects of life.

The proposal deals with the issue of rural vacation residence, designed for seasonal summer visitors, achieved through the creation of accommodation for temporary rent, offering a sense of escape and calmness of time, to rest, away from the static permanencies of continuous memories of time and life.

The design of rural vacation residences is, especially today, an important issue of architectural expression and determination of balance in regard to the expressing the character of the islands, the ambience of the stay and the type and the intentions of the holidays.

There is much reflection on the nature of a complex economic socio-anthropological phenomenon, especially when the client seeks an over-exploitation through stereotypes of a luxurious short-lived experience, while the architect aims for an economically temperate expression, where the real source of richness is the sense of freedom and the possibility of coexistence.

The proposal concerns a 3-residence complex under a single concrete roof which functions both as the ceiling and as an open pergola providing shadow to the external spaces. Each house has a separate entrance, maintaining its independence and autonomy.

An integral element of the proposal is the semi-outdoor space of the 2nd and 3rd residence which unites, and at the same time, splits the residence into two parts, offering privacy to the sleeping areas. It is a courtyard, a place for gathering and meeting, a point of integration of the interior and the exterior. It embodies the concept of the intermediate space, as a connecting element between the solid and the void, the mobile and the fixed, the built and the natural. This intermediate space offers the choice between light and shadow, between the filters of warm and cold, expanding – shifting the experience of the residence outside its strict boundaries.

The proposal chose an open building formation as a composition of building volumes (about 18.500m²), under a bioclimatic canopy, which intermediates between the natural environment of the hill, the urban fabric and is also influenced by the “industrial” characteristics of the facilities of EYDAP.

The new building was formed with a logic of a spatial succession of open and closed spaces and the alternation of bright and shadowy areas, which allow the environment to enter, as natural light and as a visual resource. The “free” space generated, ensures airy common areas, small atriums and an elevated internal distribution road. In this spaces, bridges, stairs and lofts create a flowing environment, allowing small groups, but also the broader community of employees to coexist.

The design philosophy of the office spaces embraces the modern perception that considers that workplaces do not simply “enclose” human activities but aim to create a multifaceted work “ecosystem”, enriched with alternative uses and images.

An extensive environmental design (green-scape, ground-scape and water-scape) preceded the integration of the new building. A large masterplan was formulated to separate the 3 planned zones and their entrances with the aim of connectivity with the city, the restoration of the ground relief and the utilization of natural resources.

In the nearest environment (Administration Zone), the landscape design is based on establishing a web centered around an internal pedestrian road that connects the various points, between which, an educational walk of 5 stops is created to understand the technical, cultural and social physiognomy of EYDAP.

The bioclimatic design of the building together with the energy design and the implementation of innovative systems for saving resources and utilizing the natural and climatic elements leads to a building with zero energy footprint and high energy efficiency and social utility.

In 2019-2021, the complete studies were held by 22 study groups of different specialties which collaborated in 4 countries to complete the study of a modern museum which, apart from the permanent exhibition spaces (7,500sqm), included complex functional units (27,700sqm in total) and outdoor and urban landscaping (23,000sqm).

A long and intense collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus was also required in order to finalize the issues of the archaeological collections and the permanent Exhibition for the completion of the Museological and Museographical study. At the same time, there was close cooperation with the employees of the Department, in order to determine the specifications and equipment of the Conservation Laboratories.

Flood protection was also carefully provisioned, due to the Pedieos River, over a period of 200 years.

The energy design of the complex was done in order to meet the category of “almost zero energy footprint” in accordance with the requirements of the legislation.

Finally, a common component of all stages was the effort to keep the total cost of the project within the defined framework of the Contract.

In September 2022, the process to tender for the construction contract for the NCM development was successfully completed, and CYFIELD JOINT VENTURE & IACOVOU (€121,000,000 +) was selected as the contractor. Construction begun in 2023.

The building is a donation from “GEORGE AND KAITY DAVID” Foundation to the University of Cyprus. The site is located in the Cyprus University Campus in Athalassa, Nicosia.

The identification and evaluation of the project surroundings gave birth to the idea of ​​creating more a living garden and less a dominant building. Although the need for a modern and innovative building remains, the heart and the identity of the building is found outside of it, in an environment that is mainly dedicated to the memory of a person, and provokes thoughts and feelings through the beauty and the power of nature.

The building is built around a northern garden, occupying the south and west side of the plot. So, in the north a hill is created from the excavation remainings which protects the garden from the north wind and the noise of the road traffic.

The curve of the building creates three entities. In the east, there is the entrance and the lobby, receiving the flow side, coming from the University Campus, where the building first appears. In the south, the second and main entity contains the main research labs and a mezzanine floor with the administration offices. In the western third part, there are two other research units. In addition, a shell has been created that surrounds the building, providing protection to the south, west and east. The shell creates a perimetrical semi-open gallery that provides beneficial shading to the building and its immediate surroundings. Finally, the upper part of the building is planted providing environmental benefits and extending the green areas of ​​the site.

CONSTRUCTION SITE PHOTOS

The City hall of Halandri is a project that comes from the 1st prize of an architectural competition in 2001. The design, then, with the young architect’s aura, envisions the public, the open, the common, looking for the way in which public space will pass into the building.

17 years after, the update – modification of the study persists on researching and retaining the initial idea for the public space, reforming the functions and the shell and completing the urban fabric at this compound crossroads of the city center.

The building delimits the lower side of the central square, completing its conceivable formation. At the same time, its volume is elevated offering an open public space that will provide the continuity and penetration of the square in the body of the building, expanding the common space and welcoming the citizens.

The lower ground level houses the transparent functions of city council and the cultural area, visible and accessible by the public, while an elevated square creates the open common space of the city hall, with the main entrance and the café. A space of reception, discharge and meeting, protected from road traffic, with open view to the central square, accepts the arrival and stay of citizens in this intermediate space of the building. The roof level is planted and formatted into an open space for social events of the municipality, with an overlooking view of the city.

The project concerns the construction of a new three-storey building with a basement and a swimming pool, in the area of ​​Gerakas, at 106 Gargitou Street. There are two maisonettes developed on two or three levels and one studio located on the ground floor. Underground parking is also provided. The building is covered in a large part by a tiled roof. The passable part of the roof is planted and covered with a pergola, in order to protect the building from direct solar radiation.

The configuration of the facade has been studied with the following criteria:
-The solar protection of the houses with wood and metal shading systems, allowing free view from the openings.
– The creation of protected outdoor spaces for daily use.
– The finish of the external surfaces with exposed unplastered concrete.

The building is gently integrated in the shaped urban and natural environment, respecting the character and the scale of the area.