sparch Sakellaridou / Papanikolaou Architects won the 4th Prize in the architectural competition for redesigning the existing grain stock house building facilities (SILO) and its surrounding open space into a Museum for Underwater Antiquities in the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) Coastal Zone including in a transformation with an open public space for outdoor activities, in February 2013.
The concept is of a continuous flow of diving and emerging, from the level of the sea to its depths and back again to knowledge. A continuous flow of people, via escalators sculpted to the body of the SILO, gives rise to the “sea level” placed on top. Visitors rise, enjoy the view of the horizon and enter the mysterious world of the museum in order “to dive to the sea-depths.” A large internal void, sculpted through vertical concrete-ribs in reference to the Antikythira Mechanism, becomes the heart of the museological narrative. A continuous belt of ramps winds around the internal void, bringing visitors deeper to the “bottom of the sea.” Natural light enters from above and winds around the shipping-wrecks along with the flow of people and their shadows. Read the rest of this entry »