Kastraki Urban Park

Kastraki Urban Park Drapetsona, Piraeus

1st Prize_National Competition

In contact with the Hetionian Gate, in-between two important municipalities, open to the sea, and overlooking the port of Piraeus, Kastraki should respond to the spatial data that ascribe it a necessarily translocal character. Its emergence as a whole requires the mitigation of the artificial boundary between the archaeological site and the new park, the consideration of this elevated land area as a unified plane where the wild low vegetation of the archaeological site extends into the space to be redeveloped. Through a diagonal: Starting from the main entrance and the new plaza, a linear path defines two radically different planting areas. A new dense park in contact with the city and a natural extension of the semi-wild planting of the archaeological site. Two circular towers of a diameter of 11 and 10 meters respectively define the Heitonian gate while the remaining trace of the wall has a length of approximately seventy meters. The scale of this open space itself requires the management of routes and infrastructure with ampleness and boldness. The sloping ramps on either side of the diagonal connect the lower level of the landscape and the café to the level of the upper park, while from the triangular plateau a sculptural, large staircase operates as an outdoor seating area. An elongated shelter extends up to Kanari Street, defining another secondary entrance to the park. Its end is smooth, semi-circular, homologate to the northern interior of the café. A series of curvilinear paths mitigate the austere geometry of the whole.

study

2016

status

Competition

Team

Tilemachos Andrianopoulos Konstantinos Kosmas Nestoras Skantzouris

Structural design

Athanassios Kontizas

Landscape Consultant

Andrew Michael Clements