Possibilities of Polykatoikia as (Gradient) Public Interior

Through the analysis of the typological elements, it had been found that “Polykatoikia”, which is the dominant typology in Athens, has qualities which had used the flexibility of Domino Structure and created “public interiors”. These have been described as gradient spaces too.

Five specific buildings have been chosen because of the chosen “gradient” qualities they had shown. All of them were aimed to be exploited by the interventions. One of the motivations of the interventions on this typology is caused by the current debates in Athens, which points out that the hope for the future of Athens is through a discovery of the potentialities of the polykatoikia. There are six interventions which indicates the evolution of polykatoikia as an example of gradi- ent spaces; and the scarcity of public spaces in Athens. The interventions use the three elements: pillars, floors and stairs.

Finally, these interventions have been shaped by the story that had been produced, and the story had been shaped by the interventions; which is an interpretation of Macbeth. story shows a set of events in sequence, as Tschumi states there is no architecture without events; which show a glimpse of possibility through the polykatoikia. Like this, the ideas of repetition, difference, time, informality, polykatoikia, event, possibility, gradient space, Mark Pimlott’s book: “Public Interior as Idea and Project”; melts together within and through the book of Macbeth(f.). It’s an A3 sized graphic novel. Buildings are titled as in Pimlott’s Public Interior.

1. The Machine: Avramiotou Street 4, in 1977,230 m².

2. The Palace: Leoforos Vasilisis Amalias 34, in 1963, 192 m².

3. The Ruin: Xenofontos Street 4 in 1963, 617 m²

4. The Shed: Maizonos and Tarella Street, Agios Pavlos, in 1974, 712 m²

5. The Network: Ogygou Street, Psirri in 1972 , 102m²

Conversion: Two Venues in Urban Context

The project consist in the conversion of an ordinary private building into a multifunctional space equipped with two venues of different capacities, an exhibition space and other private facilities. Thus, the approach was to consider the already existing conditions while being functional, this was made possible by the separation of the building in three distinct parts. The old building is for welcoming and private functions, the new intervention for the main and smaller venue, and final one is for the exhibitions.

WORLD TRADE CENTER: Deep Plan

The WTC I&II is a modernist example of a clear composition of three volumes. A theme which was continued in the third tower, the fourth was never constructed. The characteristic plinth acts as a mediator between the vertical high-rise of the two towers and the street level. The original masterplan linked several of these platforms with a street network above the cityscape. In this workshop we limited ourselves to the very core of it. The internal space lacking contact with the outside: the Deep Plan. It’s an economic solution to maximize profits stuffed with numerous technical functions or strange undefined dark spaces. As the plan of the towers is typical, perfected as with Mies’ Seagram building where the architects playground is the animation of the skin, the deep plan is a conglomerate of different structures.

A messy mixture of structural solutions, dominated by the two structural cores of the towers piercing through. We tackled the problem on a structural level imagining new possible functions to enrich the mono-functional block. The focus is the structure which defines the quality of the space which is presented as a stand-alone product. Starting by researching the ramp structure, structurally distorting a whole determinant structure of grid columns and beams, we could underline the unique elements of new structural forms using repetitive and similar grid of columns.

When it encounters the ramp, it creates distortion and some deformation. The intervention intends to extend this invisible structure, as well as making it distinctive by using a different structure, and emphasising the fragility of the existing ramp more visibly.

Mezgin

The graphic novel project, Mezgin, explores the anthropocene. With the practice of thinking-by-doing, the first half of the scenario constructed in the urban background. In the second half, the framework of more-than-human comes into play. The framework is influenced by the anthropologist Anna Tsing, and her project, ”Feral Atlas". The theoretical background described so far is in parallel with my graphic novel and PhD thesis. While the research is centred around anthropocene and its theory, the graphic novel makes its way into practice and sharing this procedure more transparently. As Mezgin is ‘under construction’, you don’t see the barriers which hides the end result, but rather the process.