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Michalis Karamichalis
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Kynosoura is a peninsula on Salamis, an island on the northern Saronic Gulf, west from Athens. It is notably known for the naval battle of Salamis, while nowadays it is used mostly as a shipyard. The coast is occupied of areas that con-tradict and coexisting with one another. The northern coastline consist of the collaboration of history and infrastructure, the ancient port of Salamis, the tomb of the “Salamis Fighters” and six shipyards. On the southern shore exists a community of illegal houses for estivation. The overlapping of the archeological and the industrial sites puts Kyno-soura under a territorial peril. The research pertain to explore these domains that are created and the historic evolution that led to the existing situation in order to create a scenario that attempts to compel the different territories to coexist.
panorama sea to land: tripinview 2016
panorama land to sea: tripinview 2016
etching: Golfe de Salamine, François Charles Hugues Lauren, 1835
The next September
“In heaps the unhappy dead lie on the strand of Salamis,
and all the neighbouring shores”
Aeschylus, Persai
Kynosoura is quite accustomed to change, there is a cycle of devastation and alteration. In every occasion there is always adjustment to the shift that occurred (environmental, geomorphological, sociological, etc.), making it a turning point in history and what is left of the previous era is its wreckage on the sea. These changes seem to happen on September.
Phase One: In the first stage of the project the main focus is in uncovering the previous eras on the surface by creating a historic park on the sea side, the old port, the dockyards and the archeological site. In addition some
of the houses on top of Kynosoura will be demolished and used for the reforestation of the site, in order for the old landscape to be recreated, while the shipyards will stay active. Some of the newly required territory will be used as fields for farming. Activities and a path is being created that starts from the northern shipyard and unravels to the tip of the peninsula that notes the landmarks of the previous Septembers that have passed.
Phase Two: A New September will come, forcing people to an new type of habitation, on the sea. This “New September” will be the existing social and territorial reality of Kynosoura today that will be left as a trace on the evolv-ing path of the historic park. The park will expand on all of Kynosoura. The people that will lose their homes will be relocated on the first six floors of a twenty storey tower, created by the scap of the dockyards. That building will be an allegory on Kynosoura, from the relocated people to a luxurious hotel on the top floors, for investors and tourist tha will come to experience history.
