Running through the Municipality from Kifisias to Mesogion Avenue, an urban planning proposal attempts to highlight the identity of Neo Psychiko though the application of two guiding principles: morphological unity and design simplicity. Given that the proposal must simultaneously constitute a single, repeatable model - which on the one hand will enhance the functionality of the existing soft traffic network and on the other hand will highlight the intense public life of the Municipality - the unity of the result and the simplicity of the application shape the dominant dipole of the proposal.

The successful model of the soft traffic network of streets and the open-air area receiving the Municipality’s exuberant public life, are restructured through the articulation of two main tools: one on the horizontal level of the ground and one on the vertical level of the buildings. Floor covering and lighting pillars intertwine, linearly running through the proposal from Olympionikon Street to the end of Riga Feraios in Mesogeion, being subject to geometric and coloration rules that attempt to achieve design clarity and unity of style: a white ribbon runs through the floor of the Public Space; an array of white pillars magnetizes the gaze towards its Sky.

Curved geometry and White Color, the double new rule: This geometric curve is born from functional criteria,it is complemented by purely linear arrangements and is introduced in both light traffic and passenger streets, squares and in the longitudinal development of the facades of the lighting poles. The rule indicating the dominance of white and its intermediate tones, expresses morphological criteria of unification, attempting to achieve the contrapuntal purity of the floor lines and facades, through the dark background of the earthy soil and the grayed-out, exuberant green of the tall vegetation.

The proposal acknowledges the area’s existing qualities and dares to strengthen them, to give them space: The green ensembles and the emblematic rows of trees are enhanced, Eleftherias square is reorganized while maintaining its successful circular layout, the low-traffic streets are carefully redesigned based on residential accesses and the vehicular traffic axes. Selected sidewalks are widened appropriately so that pedestrian circulation remains visually unobstructed along the intervention’s entire length. The proposal’s double motif in ground and sky starts from what is already there, while at the same time constituting a new model for the three suburbs. The goal is not to overturn the existing, but to adapt to it.

Governed by a common spirit, the three main typologies of the intervention are: 1) the proposal for a new model of light traffic streets, 2) the redesign of passenger streets and 3) the restructuring of the squares. All three are characterized by the decisive handling of the vegetation which acts as the third, non-technical pole of the proposal, interacting intensively with the hard floors and lighting poles: by introducing new rows of trees in suitable points of reinforcement of the axes, by partially rearranging saplings that now act as visual barriers, as well as by the creation of sub-floors of green-covered ground in the squares.

Typology 1__Light Traffic Street / Woonerf. The central idea behind the new model of soft-traffic streets is simple: The random geometry of existing planting/obstacles that achieve the diversion of car traffic, now takes a circular form - comprehensible, friendly and sculptural. The arrangement of typologically diverse circles of slightly different diameter replaces the angular or trapezoidal flowerbeds at an appropriate pace and achieves in a simple way the reduction of the cars’ speed. At the same time, a white ribbon runs across the floor between the circular barriers, intensifying the street’s perspective, as well as establishing visual connections to adjacent free spaces.

Typology 2__One row parking Street. The central idea behind redesigning streets for cars is also simple: car traffic is kept unchanged, but one of the two sidewalks on either side is widened and given over to pedestrians—with parking taking up the opposite side-zone. The hindered pedestrian circulation is enhanced by a wider zone, now marked by the continuation of the straight white ribbon - at the border of which the lighting poles are also developed. Their curved ridge intensifies the perspective of the road and the continuity of movement in a rhythmic but playful manner.

Typology 3_Free Spaces / Squares. Similarly simple is the idea governing the reconstruction of the squares: With the more circular but functionally valid existing layout of Eleftheria Square being dominant, the curvilinear demarcation of both Lambraki and Heroes of 1821 Squares is achieved by the same white ribbon that is born out of the new model of soft traffic streets and which deviates in all three squares, defining the main routes, delimiting the new hard floor, magnetizing the sculptural series of light poles.

Project Team:

Andrianopoulos Tilemachos, Gkikas Thomas, Christos Montsenigos, Paraskevopoulou Vasiliki, Xanthopoulos Konstantinos, Papaioannou Marina, Voutsas Christos, Karydi Mikelina,  Simiakakis Emmanouil, Moustaka Iris, Stylianou Stelios.

Consultants:

Vasilatos Panagiotis, Building Technology

Kostas Georgakopoulos, MEP Design

Mavrogeorgis Thodoris, Traffic Design

Eleni Tsirintani, Landscape Design

Papadopoulou Theodora, LUUN, Lighting Design 

Running through the Municipality from Kifisias to Mesogion Avenue, an urban planning proposal attempts to highlight the identity of Neo Psychiko though the application of two guiding principles: morphological unity and design simplicity. Given that the proposal must simultaneously constitute a single, repeatable model - which on the one hand will enhance the functionality of the existing soft traffic network and on the other hand will highlight the intense public life of the Municipality - the unity of the result and the simplicity of the application shape the dominant dipole of the proposal.

The successful model of the soft traffic network of streets and the open-air area receiving the Municipality’s exuberant public life, are restructured through the articulation of two main tools: one on the horizontal level of the ground and one on the vertical level of the buildings. Floor covering and lighting pillars intertwine, linearly running through the proposal from Olympionikon Street to the end of Riga Feraios in Mesogeion, being subject to geometric and coloration rules that attempt to achieve design clarity and unity of style: a white ribbon runs through the floor of the Public Space; an array of white pillars magnetizes the gaze towards its Sky.

Curved geometry and White Color, the double new rule: This geometric curve is born from functional criteria,it is complemented by purely linear arrangements and is introduced in both light traffic and passenger streets, squares and in the longitudinal development of the facades of the lighting poles. The rule indicating the dominance of white and its intermediate tones, expresses morphological criteria of unification, attempting to achieve the contrapuntal purity of the floor lines and facades, through the dark background of the earthy soil and the grayed-out, exuberant green of the tall vegetation.

The proposal acknowledges the area’s existing qualities and dares to strengthen them, to give them space: The green ensembles and the emblematic rows of trees are enhanced, Eleftherias square is reorganized while maintaining its successful circular layout, the low-traffic streets are carefully redesigned based on residential accesses and the vehicular traffic axes. Selected sidewalks are widened appropriately so that pedestrian circulation remains visually unobstructed along the intervention’s entire length. The proposal’s double motif in ground and sky starts from what is already there, while at the same time constituting a new model for the three suburbs. The goal is not to overturn the existing, but to adapt to it.

Governed by a common spirit, the three main typologies of the intervention are: 1) the proposal for a new model of light traffic streets, 2) the redesign of passenger streets and 3) the restructuring of the squares. All three are characterized by the decisive handling of the vegetation which acts as the third, non-technical pole of the proposal, interacting intensively with the hard floors and lighting poles: by introducing new rows of trees in suitable points of reinforcement of the axes, by partially rearranging saplings that now act as visual barriers, as well as by the creation of sub-floors of green-covered ground in the squares.

Typology 1__Light Traffic Street / Woonerf. The central idea behind the new model of soft-traffic streets is simple: The random geometry of existing planting/obstacles that achieve the diversion of car traffic, now takes a circular form - comprehensible, friendly and sculptural. The arrangement of typologically diverse circles of slightly different diameter replaces the angular or trapezoidal flowerbeds at an appropriate pace and achieves in a simple way the reduction of the cars’ speed. At the same time, a white ribbon runs across the floor between the circular barriers, intensifying the street’s perspective, as well as establishing visual connections to adjacent free spaces.

Typology 2__One row parking Street. The central idea behind redesigning streets for cars is also simple: car traffic is kept unchanged, but one of the two sidewalks on either side is widened and given over to pedestrians—with parking taking up the opposite side-zone. The hindered pedestrian circulation is enhanced by a wider zone, now marked by the continuation of the straight white ribbon - at the border of which the lighting poles are also developed. Their curved ridge intensifies the perspective of the road and the continuity of movement in a rhythmic but playful manner.

Typology 3_Free Spaces / Squares. Similarly simple is the idea governing the reconstruction of the squares: With the more circular but functionally valid existing layout of Eleftheria Square being dominant, the curvilinear demarcation of both Lambraki and Heroes of 1821 Squares is achieved by the same white ribbon that is born out of the new model of soft traffic streets and which deviates in all three squares, defining the main routes, delimiting the new hard floor, magnetizing the sculptural series of light poles.

Project Team:

Andrianopoulos Tilemachos, Gkikas Thomas, Christos Montsenigos, Paraskevopoulou Vasiliki, Xanthopoulos Konstantinos, Papaioannou Marina, Voutsas Christos, Karydi Mikelina,  Simiakakis Emmanouil, Moustaka Iris, Stylianou Stelios.

Consultants:

Vasilatos Panagiotis, Building Technology

Kostas Georgakopoulos, MEP Design

Mavrogeorgis Thodoris, Traffic Design

Eleni Tsirintani, Landscape Design

Papadopoulou Theodora, LUUN, Lighting Design