Athens Cultural Centre
Project by Dulmini Perera
Gods and Goddesses, Democrats and Republicans (and Badly Stuffed Cats)
Athens has become a popular travel destination in recent years because of its fascinating history, rich cultural legacy and reasonable cost. As a home to 18 UNESCO world heritage sites, Athens increasingly highlights the challenge of managing over-tourism. It strongly affects the liveability of the place and the experience of locals and visitors. Local culture may become more commercialised when tourism grows, and the city’s identity may be lost. Hence, there should be a delicate balance between locals and tourists, as well as protecting ancient monuments and developing them for tourist use.
The proposed Athens Cultural Centre is a project which redefines history and culture in a contemporary language. The site is located on the southern slope of the Acropolis – the Stoa of Eumenes. The main objective is to design a multi-purpose cultural centre and an interactive environment where tourists can engage with locals and experience Greek culture personally, benefiting both locals and tourists.
The vision is to preserve the stoa’s historical heritage and add new value that highlights the ancient stoa’s function. The conceptual idea of the design is to present a conversation between past and present, a balance between memory and imagination. The concept is Bridging the culture in a contemporary way. The proposed adaptive reuse intervention fits under the category of “parasites.”
The building consists of three levels, the ground floor, the mezzanine floor and the first floor. The reflective pool provides a surface that mirrors the architecture and the surrounding landscape, serving as a dramatic entrance. The colonnade style exterior, which interprets the old stoa’s design in a contemporary language, creates a long open corridor space for outdoor workstations that visitors and artists can utilise. Passive sustainable design, renewable energy systems and rainwater harvesting systems are used as sustainable design strategies.
