by Christina Chrysanthopoulou

 

 

A few days ago, the first prize of the architectural competition for the new Archaeological Museum of Athens at the Plato Academy (Akadimia Platonos) was announced. The winner is the architectural office of Giorgos Tsolakis, whose team guides us through the rationale of the design and the steps towards the implementation of a project.

 

The new Museum is expected to present the history of the city, through the findings it has brought to light years of archaeological research. Is also expected to highlight the wider archaeological site and the upgrading of the area.

 

The Municipality of Athens and the Greek Culture Ministry announced on Thursday that a competition had opened for the design of the new Athens Archaeological Museum that is planned to be erected in the less-privileged Akadimia Platonos area. “Athens Archaeological Museum embodies the municipality’s vision for the regeneration of the Plato Academy Park and forms its foundation,” said Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, referring also to the ambitious urban regeneration project. The project, budgeted at 3.8 million euros, will also include the construction of a 500-seat open amphitheater and the regeneration of green space with the creation of a park and is expected to create dozens of new jobs. The municipality aims to create a “hub of culture, recreation and nature in one of the most degraded areas of the capital… that will improve and significantly upgrade the quality of life of residents, offer development possibilities and opportunities for the creation of jobs”.

 

 

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the construction of an archaeological museum had been a “vision for decades” and once completed will showcase thousands of findings from Athens that have never been exhibited. “We look forward to proposals that with ingenuity and respect for the history of the location and the environment will highlight the unique wealth of finds in Athens,” said Mendoni. “The new Archaeological Museum of Athens will host important archaeological finds which had remained unseen until today and each of which could be the central exhibit in the world’s largest museums. We aspire for it to become an international center of scientific, artistic and cultural activity and an integral part of the life in the neighborhood,” said Athens Mayor , Bakoyannis.

 

The new Archaeological Museum of Athens focuses on the harmonious symbiosis of two conflicting forces in the region: On one hand, the impenetrable and continuous mass of the city and on the other, the enclosed grove of the Plato Academy with the archaeological excavations. Μuseum surface is developed underground and locally affects the terrain, creating passable outcrops and pits that enhance the horizontal topography. The museum interacts with the existing field and is harmoniously transformed into a building-land.

 

 

The square marks the beginning of the development of the emerging wings, reversing the typology of the ancient Greek pavilion temple, from an inward-facing building to an outward-facing one. The arrangement of the facades with the alternation of empty-full, refers to the stoic buildings of the archaeological finds of the Academy. The traces of history and the memory of the city interact with the new building connecting the historical past with the evolutionary future.

 

The roofs emerge from the ground as a natural continuation, presenting sloping, walkable surfaces, extending the existing planted surface of the grove while at the same time ensuring comfortable conditions of natural lighting and ventilation, for visitors and workers.

 

The landscape is the main protagonist of spatial reading. The new outdoor paths smoothly dive into the world of the past, integrating the building with the landscape and the grove is kept intact. Walkable roofs extend the surface of the grove, encouraging the growth of groundcover plants, shrubs and small trees, spatially and visually unifying the planted public space.

 

The existing planting is enhanced with endemic trees characteristic of the Athenian landscape. The new configurations and the development of the planted roofs will increase and enrich the green balance of the grove, creating new conditions for outdoor activities for the residents and visitors of the area. The proposal highlights the possibility of peaceful and harmonious coexistence of both elements as one is part of the other, creating a new whole. The construction cannot be understood detached from its primary state, the unprocessed natural matter. It is by definition part of the natural environment where it needs to undergo the appropriate transformation so as to rejoin the earth.

 

 

Attic light, water element, flora, soil geomorphology harmoniously intertwine with the building structure to provide a visitor-engaging, human-scale space. The outdoor sculpture gallery is developed at a lower level than the grove, relating the exhibits to the existing archaeological excavations of the Academy.

 

The design principles of the new Archaeological Museum project the vision of the Athens of the future: a city that relates the building infrastructure to the natural terrain and landscape, a city that respects, highlights and coexists harmoniously with nature and its history, including all its citizens.