–––
Alice Papamichalopoulou, Carine Smagulova
Aeolus (Gr. Αίολος) is located in close vicinity to Cape Sounion in a unique natural setting. It is a small and exclusive coastal community of second homes, built in the early 1990’s for the members of a lawyers’ housing association.
The implemented masterplan prescribed only one type of buildings: semi-detached single storey houses with pitched roofs and fenced-off gardens. Nevertheless due to the southwest sloping topography, all houses enjoy a spectacular panorama and sunset. A dense grid of streets reassures vehicular access everywhere. Basic communal facilities are arranged along a cascading central spine: a tennis court, a playground and a visitors’ parking yet without any commercial or public facilities. All in all, Aeolus is a prime example of a gated community with little respect or appreciation to the landscape it forms part.
The mapping research records and assesses the landscape’s features and pressures with the aim to project the potentialities of a new community for living in nature with diversity and publicness as its basic principles.
Reclaiming Aeolus
Aeolus, Palaia Fokaia, Attica, GR
Alice Papamichalopoulou, Carine Smagulova
The masterplan prescribes the creation of a community for all, combining permanent living for the elderly with an array of new culture and leisure programmes. With subtle interventions and unifications of individual properties, the demolition of fences and the projection of a new network of streets, squares, urban blocks, gardens and public spaces, visitors, workers and residents of Aeolus will coexist and enjoy landscape, wellness, sports, even gastronomy, in an exciting Mediterranean coastal setting.
05/16 aeolus book