Ministry of Infrastructure

dimitris — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:07:05 +0000

Ministry of Infrastructure dimitris Wed, 03/24/2021 - 16:07

Featured Image

Keywords

Government, Public

Type

Competition

Location

Athens, Greece

Client

GGDE

Status

Submitted

Size

Team

D.Zoupas, G.Zoupas

Description

The existing city planning requirements pose a significant, decisive parameter in the arrangement of the architectural proposal. In particular, the obligation of keeping a zone, that crosses the plot diagonally and cuts the property essentially in half, totally free of building construction, leads automatically to the creation of at least two building volumes above ground. The location of the plot along Pireos Avenue also plays a crucial role in the relation to the building with its urban fabric. Finally a very intricate program with an extended number of internal connections and operational requirements needs to be accomodated.

Talking all of the above as foundational starting points, the design proposal poses the following goals:

_To highlight the plot’s main access through Pireos Avenue through the overall expression of the building form and the creation of an extended entrance plaza. The scale of the building should relate to its context as a large Public Organization.

_To recover the building unity that is being interrupted by the City Planning requirements. The building should be presented in its totality as one, rather than a fragment of volumes.

_To create a symbolic association betwen the expression of the building and the Ministry's nature of enterprise , namely its association with large scale infrastructure works.

Perspective

Site Plan

SE Elevation

NW Elevation

Entrance

Office Space

German Embassy

dimitris — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 18:50:57 +0000

German Embassy dimitris Mon, 12/05/2016 - 20:50

Featured Image

Year

2014

Keywords

Government, Public

Type

Competition

Location

Cairo, Egypt

Client

Bundesamt für Bauwesen Deutschland

Status

Submitted

Size

4 000 m²

Team

D.Zoupas, G.Zoupas, P.Xanthopoulos, I.Zindrou

Description

The design of the German Embassy in Cairo is a complex challenge both because of the particular nature of the building, and because of the particular political turmoil that the country is going through. An Embassy Building must express the societal morals and values of the country that it represents, becoming a carrier of commercial and cultural exchanges with the country in which it is hosted. The building of the Embassy should ensure its smooth and safe daily operations and at the same time, operating on a symbolic level, it must become a constant reminder of all these values.

We propose a design that symbolically allows a visual permeability, assuming that more than ever the diplomatic exchanges between the two countries can and should intensify. The architectural idea focuses on the space of the main entrance, not that much on the interior lobby, but on the outdoor semi-public space, which is shared by both the Embassy Offices and the official residence of the German Ambassador.

This common shared space is produced by subtracting, from the maximum allowed programmatic volume a prism by the use of slanted surfaces. The tension produced in the final expression of the building is again on a symbolic level trying to re-produce the tension that the Egyptian society is going through as well as the critical nature of Germany's involvement in the democratic future of the country. On a programmatic level it marks a clear distinction between the two main cores of the program, the more public part, the offices and the private part, the Ambassador's residence.

Concept Diagram

Site Plan

Elevation Drawing

Section Drawing

Sustainability Diagram