Pharos
The architectural proposal for the Archaeological Museum of Athens at Plato’s Academy deals with a multi-functional project with an international scope – museum, cultural institution, center for research and dissemination of knowledge, urban park, at the same time – and aims to highlight the historical wealth of the city of Athens and the revitalization of the urban everyday life of its residents and visitors.
The new Museum aims to be a point of reference for the metropolitan area of Athens while at the same time introducing itself on the world map of museums as a modern “beacon of culture”.
The building presents an inseparable, unique relationship with the archaeological grove of the Plato Academy. The main purpose is for the Museum to differentiate itself from common design ideas and museographic concepts of the past and to redefine the identity and the role of a modern museum in society.
Location: Athens, Greece
Year: 2023
Area: 16.560m²
Category: Architecture, Competition
Project Team:
Collaboratos:
Consultants:
Urban Artifacts
Plato's Academy
The aim of the urban planning study is to design the building that will work for the benefit of the local and supra-local society, highlighting the highest importance of the archaeological findings and without altering the special characteristics and the free public character of the archaeological grove since it is one of the few green cores in the city of Athens.
The maintenance of the green balance of the area by the design of the planted roofs of the Museum and its outdoor space and sustainability through active and passive measures are the starting point of the strategic planning.
«Μηδείς ἀγεωμέτρητος εἰσίτω»
The phrase that adorned the lintel of the entrance to Plato’s Academy hides within it the Platonic concept, according to which the concepts of equality, justice, prudence and accuracy are considered fundamental and are the prerequisite for the pursuit of wisdom.
The philosophical background cultivated by the Academy remains relevant for the Museum’s value system. It is the space that, according to the statutory principles of its operation, ensures equality and justice and promotes inductive thinking and critical and reflective ability.
The core of the Idea for the realization of the new Museum is based on Geometry. It consists both of the abstract philosophical virtue that is concentrated in Plato’s theory, and of its practical application as a tool for carrying out the excavation process and reconstructing the material remainings of the past.
The use of grid is one of the geometric tools applied in order the layers of the past. Excavation proceeds by deconstructing the layers of the past in a systematic and geometric manner aiming at its understanding and interpretation and uses multi voice narrative to guide its reconstruction.
In the same way, the volumes of the building ensemble disperse in space and compose a new place of memory for the city’s narratives, including the reading of the city’s identity in the past but also its projection into the future through a continuous reflective process.
