The last galleria of the Venetian Arsenale Grimani, part of which is today's Eastern Neorion, was completed in 1608, exactly 400 years after the announcement of the competition for its cultural re-use. During its first use, it housed the construction of a large galley: a galera. The military use of the galleria by the Venetians is now expected to become a cultural one for modern Cretans. The first Arsenali were made out of wood, but their frequent destruction from fire imposed the use of stone. The wood remained inside them as the main material for the under-construction hull. This very wooden, sharp hull is reintroduced into the remaining part of the stone galleria as a reminder of an incomplete wooden galley -this time of a cultural use. The main monument of the complex is certainly the imposing galleria. The robust, stone construction and the orientation of the elongated open gallery in relation to the seafront, have channeled the immediate experience of the monument, in the most unambiguous way, through the constant movement of pedestrians. Welcoming this semi-open daily movement, the Venetian architecture of the galleria indicates from the outset the only handling that is appropriate to it in the context of the competition: To also remain semi-open. Or else, it forbids with its presence the manipulation that would destroy it: to be turned into a closed space. The stone, imposing galleria remains as it is, but inside it a wooden, mobile hull is introduced, a light wooden grid that defines an adequate enclosure in contact with the ZANE tank. With the sudden introduction of an unexpected structural object the galleria of Arsenali Grimani remains what once was but also something more: Its vigor is growing. In the manner that this used to happen centuries ago when it was abruptly related to an under-construction, wooden galley. The sea's breeze keeps moving freely in-between them.

The last galleria of the Venetian Arsenale Grimani, part of which is today's Eastern Neorion, was completed in 1608, exactly 400 years after the announcement of the competition for its cultural re-use. During its first use, it housed the construction of a large galley: a galera. The military use of the galleria by the Venetians is now expected to become a cultural one for modern Cretans. The first Arsenali were made out of wood, but their frequent destruction from fire imposed the use of stone. The wood remained inside them as the main material for the under-construction hull. This very wooden, sharp hull is reintroduced into the remaining part of the stone galleria as a reminder of an incomplete wooden galley -this time of a cultural use. The main monument of the complex is certainly the imposing galleria. The robust, stone construction and the orientation of the elongated open gallery in relation to the seafront, have channeled the immediate experience of the monument, in the most unambiguous way, through the constant movement of pedestrians. Welcoming this semi-open daily movement, the Venetian architecture of the galleria indicates from the outset the only handling that is appropriate to it in the context of the competition: To also remain semi-open. Or else, it forbids with its presence the manipulation that would destroy it: to be turned into a closed space. The stone, imposing galleria remains as it is, but inside it a wooden, mobile hull is introduced, a light wooden grid that defines an adequate enclosure in contact with the ZANE tank. With the sudden introduction of an unexpected structural object the galleria of Arsenali Grimani remains what once was but also something more: Its vigor is growing. In the manner that this used to happen centuries ago when it was abruptly related to an under-construction, wooden galley. The sea's breeze keeps moving freely in-between them.