Winning proposal of the open competition organised by Piraeus Port Authority, concerning the redesign of the existing Silo (cereals' stock house facility), into the new Museum of Underwater Antiquities, sponsored by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
architects: Vangelis Antonopoulos, Thalia Vetta, Giorgos Gavalas, Maria Pilarinou, Maro Riga, Natasa Stamouli
The full presentation of the entry can be found here:
http://www.piraeusculturalcoast.org.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&lang=en
The restructuring of the coastal zone of the Port of Piraeus restores the broken relationship between the city and the sea. It takes recreational and cultural uses of various qualities and references, reflecting in the spirit of its planning, the hovering position of the Haetionian coast between land and water, urban and marine landscape, local and supralocal character.
The flows of the city come to meet the flows of the marine routes which stream in the port. Urban fragments, green areas, and designed shores are the basic tools that compose the typology of the new coast. The planning of the intervention aims at redefining the activity of people and re-introducing the human scale in the specified area, without concealing the great antithesis that the physiognomy of the commercial port already contains.
The new Museum of Marine Antiquities redefines and amplifies the self-marking of the historic building of Silo as an established landmark of supralocal character. Modern architectural idioms converse with the old typology, enrich its physiognomy and reflect outwards the new function. The stern introvert machine-building of the past, claims its contact with the open space, revealing hidden sides to the city and “emptying” freely its interior towards the sea.
The content of the building takes the shape of an organic form which flows outwards, as a reminder of a ship’s hull or a sea monster. The plasticity and the modern character of this metal form dialectically contrast with the Cartesian sternness of the monolithic block of concrete of the existing building. The interior of the new figure presents by means of high edge technology, a complete tour through the history of the relation of man with the sea in Greece and the broader region, maintaining in the area of the form situated within the limits of the old building, the introversion of the sea depths and offering gradually the view of the open horizon facing the sea.
The addition of smaller secondary building blocks which service the special supportive requirements of the Museum, follow discretely the micro-scale of man and shape different qualities of reception when facing the city, the coast and the designed plan οf the Cultural Park.
images completed in November 2012
