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Debris Urban Floor

Debris Urban Floor

Athenian Streets Out of Remains

Debris Urban Floor

A street typology constructed with the use of material debris, rubble of older constructions, "modern ruin" remains or other type of structural trash and recycled matter was the purpose of this investigation. The question was related to a possibility of creating a stable surface that could allow a mixed use from vehicles and pedestrians and also to a renovation of the street material that is ready to support different contents of a street public life.

A structure of a composite empty frame that could welcome all this abandoned material could allow a reconsideration of the athenian street surface as a platform that may propose transformations or reinterpretations of each existing street condition. This pattern was elaborated during a workshop concerning a particular area of Athens (Kerameikos - Metaxourgeio). A temporary consortium of Greek architects proposed some works in collaboration with citizens and interested developers. The street model proposed by Antonas office deals with a strategy that concerns the urban surface of the street "per se", as a platform whose content would be investigated together with every application of it.

An irregular grid, composed by thin, linear concrete elements, structure the platform of this design. The empty rectangular surfaces are prepared to host construction waste or to reuse unwanted material. The project describes a pattern and, in the same time, it proposes a way of filling the empty surfaces that are formed by the installation of this pattern: a visit to the municipality's warehouses of construction materials proves that there are a lot of wasted or second hand materials, not usable because found in small quantities. A construction material can be composed by a recycled waste of the Athens market; glass and aluminum cubes can be treated in order to be usable for those surfaces. The motley material will be used to complete this pattern and finish the surface of the proposed urban floor in an analogous way a traditional Greek tissue ("kourelou"), was composed by remains of old clothes.

 

Athens, 2010

Athens and some thoughts on urban mechanisms

But the most interesting condition for architecture in Greece is the one that is not attentively examined by professionals; the transformations that are taking place now will rule the practice of the city’s constructions in a wider sense during the following years. Athens cannot be thought as the typical western city as conceived some years ago. Athens becomes an exemplary urban congregation that could represent an unknown future city.

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