Inside an urban scenery which at the moment is under siege – the sea on one side and city’s density on the other – the idea of the XML project, for the tower of Piraeus, is based on introducing a part of the city inside the building.
Based on the triptych: a) access b) function and c) aim, we concluded as follows
a)Access = inter-relation. At this point, we studied the idea of how through the design process, it would be possible to achieve a relation between the public and private zones of the building.
b)Function = inter-action, At this point we wanted to explore a way on how to use the façade as a spatial generator. Thus promoting interaction between the users and the built form.
c)Aim = inter-penetrability. Our purpose from the very beginning of this exploration was to research the possibility of programmatic mixture inside the building. The very same programs that one meets in the public space of the city entered inside the scale of our building.
Public-private concept for creation of interaction areas between users for the new Piraeus Tower:
In accordance with the above mentioned triptych, the concept of public-private areas differs from a purely public, especially on the aspect of accessibility. Those areas are private since they are situated within a building and cannot be visited from everybody, on the other hand are public areas for its users and visitors.
The Relationship between the city and the building: the display of this inter-relation in our proposal comes through the creation of a new shell capable of acting as an access filter. Its purpose is filtering accessibility to the building from the city. If you want to be inside you have to get in.
Interaction area (IN/between space): within the void area which is created by the existing built form and new shell of the Tower, this type of space is realized by the use of balconies, which operate as areas to get socialized. You can meet there.
Consumption and entertainment spaces: The programmatic mixture (coffee shop, shops, restaurant) in different levels of the tower is the reason for the creation of vertical patio-balconies and a new vertical movement inside its IN/between space. Public /private spaces as vertical squares and streets.
Therefore our proposal’s objective is the introduction of the event city character within the tower of Piraeus and its transformation into an XML
As for the material representation of the shell, wefollowed a sense of hierarchy between the fourfacadesof the existing tower,based on the orientation and it’s positioninginside the urbancontext.The shell’sfour façadesarethe result ofcombinationbetween three types ofsurfaces withpanels (6m2/panel), attached to the main frame.
- Surface with vertical vegetation panels:vegetation on the façades is used for sun shading andmicro-climatic control.
- Solid surfaces with translucent panels by DuPont: translucent colored acrylicCorianpanel(max12m2). The assembly of panel is made with ‘ INVISIBLE’, smoothed welding, which is reinforced byjoints of 6 mm thick and 5 cm wide. The material is scratch andchemical proof andprotects fromultraviolet radiation.Each panelisfitted with buckles at the rear, mounted on aluminum frame andincorporated in the mass of the panel.
- Void surface, apparent frame.The choice of creating voids in parts of the shell, allows partiallythe exhibition of the existing tower’s structural system through its glass cladding facades (Sentry Glassby DuPont)
