fishing boat harbor in liopetri, phase b _ 1ST PRIZE
STATUS: 1st prize, Two – Phase European Architectural Competition October 2011 Liopetri, Cuprus
Design Team: ALEXANDROS ZOMAS, Iereidis Vasilis, Aimilios Michael, Eleni Mitakou, Raisi Alexia, Dimitris Hatzopoulos, Paraskevi Fanou, Anastasia Lada.
The site is located at the shore of south eastern Cyprus, between the towns of Larnaca and Agia Napa and it measures 42 hectares. It is predominantly agricultural and aligned on either sides of a dry river bed that reaches the sea at a point where a natural fiord like bay is formed. The diverse geological surroundings and the ragged Mediterranean flora of the area form an undoubted unique landscape. The brief called for a proposal that would provide all the necessary facilities for the fishing boat harbor and create a park that focuses on environmental education. Cyprus’ s Mediterranean climate with the mild winters and hot and arid summers forced us to thing outside the box in the attempt to design for a sustainable environment . The space itself gave the means, because while studying it became apparent that this could only be achieved by exploring the simplicity of the surroundings as a notion for designing.
The proposal stands as a binary between experience and function. The landscape is approached as a whole and undivided entity, a place of experience, where nature and the naïf agricultural landscape are ever-present. Space is inscribed as the subtle interpretation of local culture in the form of a seemingly un-designed landscape, that unobtrusively engages the visitor through a plethora of stimuli that try to evoke his or hers memory. The functional part receives a secondary role as to serve the objectives above. The program is spread in space forming islands of activities and services, in a way as not to obstruct the paths and the freedom of the visitor to move freely in the landscape. As an outcome there are no clear boundaries between the fishing boat harbor and the park or in that sense between any other of the proposed interventions. Setting up the park it was crucial to maintain the principle by which different species are to coexist. These were scattered in the landscape in an attempt to form a pattern that is to be read and perceived as a whole. The final outcome tries to by accumulate within the original landscape.
