papalampropoulos syriopoulou
eleusis quarry
Status: 5th Year Diploma Project, NTUA School of Architecture
Program: Culture, Urban
Year: 2003
Area: 30.500m2
Location: Eleusis, Greece
Student: Leonidas Papalampropoulos
Tutors: Prof. N. Lascaris, Prof. D. Fillipides, Prof. T. Papaioannou
The project’s aim was to turn the abandoned area of a former quarry into a vital space for Eleusis citizens.
This resulted in a design proposal that suggested new ways of developing and expanding the city while at the same time trying to give a new urban identity.
Specifically, the site as part of a larger area dedicated to production of building materials is characterized by its previous use as a quarry, while its original form is no longer recognizable, since the landscape has been extensively damaged. The urban-natural axis indicates the overall character of the proposal as a place that has not decided its identity. The question in hand being a fusion between city and country, an introductory and partial condition native to the city of Eleusis.
The scheme is concentrated on the pole building-fragment expressed in fully-fledge in the old quarries where the remains of the natural hill are located. There, three “mountain” volumes (the design considers them as buildings) create an artificially enclosed space, a scene between reality and illusion. On the other hand buildings, considered as fragments of the landscape, are inserted between the mountain volumes and the void in order to revitalize the area.