AGIA PARASKEVI CITY HALL

The form of the City Hall should respond to its particular use as well as to a wider scale. The need of a strong autonomous presence of the building, that would transform itself to a landmark, has been crucial in our design. At the same time, the building will contribute to the upgrade of the urban environment, which currently lacks of a distinctive character. These have been the main guidelines that form the design proposal.

An initial choice concerned the clarity of the form combined with clean and homogenous manipulation of the facades. Another choice was about the emphasis and the plasticity of the building’s volume. Without overriding the first intention, the building must have a dynamic and sculptural presence in order to confront with the vague and aggressive urban landscape of the Greek ‘polykatoikia’.

The basic intention of the design was to create a building open to the public expressing the need of transparency and freedom, incorporating the symbolic and spatial qualities that make it a center of democratic decision making while preserving the unity and prestige of the municipal authorities.

The public character of the City Hall and the coexistence of different uses led to the stereometric shape of the building consisting of the joint of two basic volumes on an expanded base. This distinction, that breaks the building into three units, reflects the general grouping of functions and contributes to its recognizable character.