The proposal aims to the restoration of the relation between the city and the sea, by interventing at their in-between critical zone. A century ago, the character of this zone's section possesed an inherent simplicity: the beach’s sloping plane achieved a natural, direct connection between the city and the sea. This primary section is restored: The sea-front land zone is redesigned and gets reconnected to the beach -operating as a receptive, stone, linear landscape. Neapoli is a city that spreads in an almost 2 km length, while the distance between the building front and the water remains relatively steady. Additionally, its central pier -symmetrically placed and perpendicular to the building’s front– necessarily obtains a sculptural character –now standing as a landmark. The intervention follows the already strong presence of the current linearity, it is born by it. Parallel to the buildings, parallel to the seaside, absolutely vertically to the central pier, a linear sequence of stone carvings, is imposed: as a new intermediate topos. Its ground is being shaped by a sequence of linear levels which attempt to restore the relation between the city and the beach, rescind the presence of the steep embankment fill and operate as flexible receptors of social life. The width of the sea-front land zone, which is born by the central sector and the pier, is progressively reduced towards the city’s edges: on one hand the intensive functional character of the central sector defines its amplitude and on the other hand the reduction of the stone surfaces towards the edges attempts to restore the width of the beach, especially to the east. The new linear tree alley that supplements the central sector’s existing planting, leads at the extremities in two different significant green areas, of a diferent nature, two new urban groves -on the entrance and the exit of the city respectively.
study
2014
status
Competition
Team
Tilemachos Andrianopoulos
Kostas Mavros
Thanos Bampanelos
Danah Lytra
Structural design
Athanassios Kontizas
Consultants
Klimis Aslanidis