papalampropoulos syriopoulou
ANTRUM
Status: Competition proposal / Municipality of Papagos-Cholargos
Program: Municipal kindergarten
Site area: 870 sqm
Building area: 490 sqm
Location: Papagos, Athens, Greece
Year: 2023
Architects: Leonidas Papalampropoulos, Georgia Syriopoulou
The functional requirements paired with the strict buidling regulations dictated the exploitation of the maximum site coverage with the simultaneous developement of the program in two levels.
The obligatory green buffer space and side distances form a 5 meter open-air perimenter zone which lacks the proportions and typological features of a central open space (courtyard).
Thus, the issue of the typological association of the internal functions with the outdoor space is reduced exclusively to a strategy of eroding the original solid in order to create cavities (antra) capable of ensuring a smooth interior-exterior continuity.
The design process invokes the archetypal reference of the cave as a central axis for integrating the element of play into the architectural production. In our case, playfullness is not located in the established form-program relationship (eg the form of the toy-object results from the execution of a specific routine) but in the process of interpreting the empty space, refering to the archetypal process of interpreting the topology of the cave in a dwelling.
The central cavity ensures the continuity of the outdoor perimeter zone inside the building through a structural system of concrete walls and metal beams.