Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

The 2nd Athens Workshop "Athens Waterfront" deals with the way the city meets the sea. Connecting the city to its waterfront along the Saronic Gulf was a problem that the preparation works for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games attempted to tackle; however, it remained an incomplete project. Athens' coastal area (from Neo Faliro to Hellenikon) is a 12-kilometer fringe of land. The first four kilometers - what is called the Faliro Bay - include major highway and tram network infrastructure and intersections, the point where the city's two rivers meet the sea, extended no-use seafront pieces of land and several large Olympic objects - the Tae Kwon Do and Beach Volley stadia, a linear multi-purpose building running along the sea, a small marina and the Esplanade bridge that connects the waterfront area to the city at the grounds of the future national Library, Opera and Park, currently being designed by Renzo Piano. Next to them stand private large objects of leisure and consumption that enhance the area's programmatic density: a large multiplex, a large electronics store as well as a linear development of stores, restaurants and bars along a private marina. The Waterfront is a very complex, however, challenging urban landscape which incorporates all five themes of the 1st Athens Workshop, which will be re-approached. The workshop will consider analysis and design proposals for the Athens Waterfront - specifically the Faliro Bay area - seeking to connect the city to the sea through an extensive zone of freely accessible public space.

 

This workshop builds on the work accomplished at the 1st Athens Workshop "Mapping Athens in the 21st Century" that attempted to analyze and document the constitution of Post-Olympic Athens - what could be called "Diffused Athens" - based on five themes/constituent elements: networks, large objects, landscape, public space and people.
 

WORKSHOP BLOG:  http://athensproject2.tumblr.com/