athenian highrise

architectural design course, 2018
tutor: Georgios Panetsos

Athens is not a city with many highrise buildings, despite the high population density. This studio focused on the design of an only 50m high building, that ties into the contemporary Athenian urban landscape. The polykatoikia is the par excellence building type in the Greek city, with a flexible plan of non-load-bearing walls, a typical concrete structure and mix of uses and classes. I attempted to design a highrise building with these qualities, a Highrise as a polykatoikia. Firstly, I selected this site because of its unbuilt corner and due to its neighboring the Sygrou Avenue, so that the building’s mass would not affect the urban fabric too much. An element that was emphasized in the studio was the importance of designing the upper floors for wealthier people or specific uses (restaurant, roof garden, firms e.g.), that can finance the maintenance of the building. In light of that, the ground floor is a open-plan lobby, not with the typical commercial uses, and the upper levels are luxurious apartments, overlooking the Acropolis and the sea. A typical two-way joint concrete slab system is repeated in all levels, but with increasing interior heights. The 15 floors are organized through 5 typical floor plans, with ranging heights from 2.87m to 4.31m, and from 12 units to 1 apartment. The first and second typical floor plans are flexible enough to accommodate both residential use and small offices, while the upper floors are exclusively residential. To unify and democratize the façade, the exterior is clad with perforated steel sliding panels.