Winning team: OASIS

Department of Architecture, University of Patras-GR

Team: Konstantina Angelopoulou; Eleftheria Arvanitaki; Apollon Diamantis; Eleni Georgiou; Joanna Magkafa; Aikaterini Mavrommati; Aikaterini Mindrinou; Anastasia Nikolaou; Nikolaos Spiliotopoulos

Faculty advisors: Demetra Katsota, Professor (Design Studio Head); Alcestis Rodi, Associate Professor; Constantinos, Petrakos, PhD Candidate & Senior Research Associate

Geneva Tsinghua Initiative, Institute of Environmental Governance and Territorial Development, University of Geneva-CH

Team: Maria Isabel Alvarez Fernandez; Anna Carolina Peixoto Deveza; Arissandra Egorova; Fabio Monnet 
Faculty advisors: Alexandre Babak Hedjazi, Senior Lecturer, GEPP Director; Matteo Tarantino, Lecturer & Senior Research Associate

Consultancy: Spiro Pollalis, Professor Harvard GSD, Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure

The team intends to create a project based on the natural life cycle, the triptych of sun-soil-water. The project uses one of the most underused, yet multifunctional natural resources available in the urban fabric, its soil capital. The full project uses up to 66% of the excavation soil from the nearby metro station works on Kanari square. Soil is the connector between the different realms of private and public space, and it is used as a design tool, in urban farming, in green facades, and in the creation of new landscapes. The project is believed to turn Kypseli into a prototype soil capital for Athens.

Key components

• Permeable networks to be accomplished through the recuperation and distribution of soil through the neighbourhood.

• 750m2 of the total 3100m2 of Fokionos Negri-Eptanisou-Syrou Sporadon will host green roofs. 420m2 of the total 2300m2 of  Fokionos Negri-Sikinou-Tenedou-Aghias Zonis will host green roofs, with the potential to reduce the annual cooling and heating loads by 19% and 11% respectively and the potential to capture between 1400-to-1900-ton C02/year. 

• Green energy generated through footsteps with a pavegen transforming kinetic energy into electricity.

Presentation of the site

Fokionos Negri street is in the neighbourhood of Kypseli. It is a long pedestrianised street, which hosts Kypseli Square and connects people with the city centre. The street and square provide one of the few open and green spaces amongst the mixed use, dense neighbourhood and busy streets.

Today, the street is not what it used to be. While it remains closed to cars, the quality of the street environment has deteriorated, and it is no longer sufficient for the number of apartment dwellers and dogs which live in the area. Alongside this, the wider neighbourhood lacks pedestrian corridors and greenspace - placing increased pressures on this area.

The rise in Kypseli’s population presents an opportunity to revitalise the street and use it as an anchor to drive further upgrades to the other streets of the surrounding neighbourhood streets. Within this competition, students are asked to redesign Fokionos Negri street as a commercial, creative space, which provides a place for people to rest and enjoy Kypseli. Students should also identify key surrounding streets that could be regenerated and retrofitted as key pedestrian and cyclist corridors to connect to Fokionos Negro Street, and as a means to deliver smaller ‘pocket’ parks.

Demographics

Kypseli is a very diverse neighborhood, which includes old Athenians, students, artists, creatives, NGOs, innovative entrepreneurs, immigrants, solidarity networks and many community organizations.

Special mention:

Team Green Hive

Team members: Michael Lazaridis, Konstantinos Koularmanis, Theodora Theodoridou, Alexandra Lavranou Moraiti, Maria Chatzigeorgiou, Anna Maniou, Calliope Pantazidou, Anna Tompoulidou, Georgios Michailidis, Katerina, Sereki Dimitra Tsanadi - Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

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