Seven Rings
Project by Hannani Fitri
Urban Cuts Across Media
Contextualizing Coffee Rings, the introduction
Roaming around Athens in mid-January of 2023, consuming up to 5 cups of Greek coffee daily for 4 days, the formation of coffee rings was studied. Coffee Rings are the settled sediments on the interior walls of a coffee cup. The rings are attained when the beverage sits long enough to let the coffee grains settle on the walls. Layers of these rings indicate the time taken in between sips. Thinner layers reveal when smaller sips are taken between longer periods and thicker layers indicate a big gulp has been taken in a short amount of time. In addition to keeping media as a method to document these rings, the author has left digital footprints capturing the names of the locations of which part of the city she was in, making it free for the people who follow her on social media to find out exactly where she had her coffees.
Contextualizing Coffee Rings is a video experiment that uses coffee rings as a tool to measure time. The traditional Greek Coffee is used as a social catalyst for more than one party to interact with each other. The strong coffee aroma and taste encourage patrons to take small sips in between conversations. The video highlights the positives of drinking Greek Coffee together and how it will infinitely stay positive as we frame our experiences for social media to consume and live vicariously through us.
Identifying the factors established from this activity has spiked the author’s interest in coffee, Greek Coffee being a completely new territory. Using coffee as a social catalyst and understanding how deep-rooted the coffee culture is in Greece, a development to celebrate this treasure has arisen. Researching the different phases of coffee culture Greece has gone through ranging from the traditional Greek coffee to what the famous Freddo people enjoy during the summer these days, the programme of this project has bloomed to be a Cultural Centre for Coffee and Roastery. A Cultural Centre that celebrates the three phases of coffee culture in Greece and provides roasting services for cafes in Athens.
Seven Rings, the proposal
Seven Rings, named after the number of loops completed by the ramps, is a place to celebrate Greece’s coffee culture. Walk through the open ground floor plaza and indulge in learning about the coffee’s brewing rituals. Seven Rings is designed to show the glimpses of how coffee is brought to life, from delivery to roasting and to brewing. Copper tubes spread around Seven Rings to transfer coffee beans from one level to another. Listen to the sound of the beans rattling in the tubes, smell the aromatic nodes from the roastery, and taste the different beverages that have brought the coffee culture in Greece back to life at different points in history.
Introducing a one-way journey through the building as a means of experiencing the history of Greece’s coffee culture throughout time, the planning of Seven Rings is to imitate the coffee rings by implementing ramps as the main method of transporting through the building. These ramps lead to educational spaces, retail, and ‘Instagramable’ spaces to share glimpses of coffee culture on social media.
Picking a site that is accessible to Athenian tourist activities and cafes was a top priority. Adrianou Park has been selected as the site of Seven Rings. It is situated along Adrianou Street that is packed with visiting tourists, street vendors, and patrons. Thissio Street, a smaller street linked to Adrianou Street is lined with small shops, cafes, and vacant buildings. The foot traffic on Thissio Street heavily contrasts with the hustling Adrianou Street. This project aims to open up Adrianou Park and attract more foot traffic towards Thissio Street.
Ruins on site are proposed to be treated and capped to be used as pieces of furniture in Seven Rings’ underground level. This way, visitors will have a direct connection with Ancient Greece. 3D-printed replicas of the ruins are to be distributed to cafes around Athens Seven Rings will provide coffee beans and grounds. These replicas will be painted in the same Copper colour as the building as a means of architectural wayfinding towards the Cultural Centre and Roastery.
Existing street vendors are not expected to relocate. Instead, they are encouraged to continue their businesses on the public plaza proposed for Seven Rings. The open ground floor extends the pedestrian level into the site. Openings on the ground floor plaza are for pedestrians walking by to be able to have glimpses of the roastery and ruins on the underground floor.
Each phase of the coffee culture in Greece has its own separate educational spaces spread across the levels of the cultural centre. These spaces have been designed specifically for the different types of coffee drinks that sparked the beverage’s popularity over time.
The structure
Set in an earthquake-prone city, a base isolation system is implemented for the underground floor. The structure of the building is separated from the base foundation by using a suspended system between the base and the main structure.
The floor slab is separated from the base foundation by rows of isolators, and the basement walls are separated from the retaining walls with dissipators.
The inertial forces caused by the earthquake are directly proportional to the mass of the structure and the ground acceleration. Increasing ductility of the building structure reduces the transfer of motion, thus the displacement of the building is controlled.
In conclusion, Seven Rings – a coffee cultural centre and roastery, celebrates Greek coffee culture and provides quality beans for Athenian cafes. It was developed to promote smooth
movement through the building from one entry point to the exit, bringing the visitor along this journey from the past to the present. Enter the building from the main pedestrian street and exit to a nearby alley draped with artisanal shops and friendly store owners. Seven Rings highlights the joy and amicable relationships with fellow Athenians over a cup of coffee and its origins.
