TYPE:

Educational / Commercial / Civic

SIZE:

230,000 SF

DESCRIPTION:

The goal of this project was to design a modern day agora. The agora will act as an open, public place of education and trade. Above the agora, the new cultural center for the city of Volos will celebrate and provide access to the unique Greek history of the region. By definition an agora is a public place of assembly. The word comes from the combination of two verbs, to shop and to speak publicly. It functions as a place for exchanging goods, opinions, and culture. This space served both the commercial and civic sectors. From our historical research of the country of Greece and more specifically the city of Volos, we found that this region is culturally significant because of King Chiron. King Chiron is notable for being an educator to several important figures of antiquity, including Jason, Hercules, and Achilles. Our Solution focuses on three important points. It uses typologies native to the region; it respects the natural flow of pedestrians through the site, and acts as a center for cultural exchange. Our building’s orientation is rotated slightly off the city grid for several reasons. The first is to align it to the orientation of pedestrian traffic. The second is to create four small pockets that each serve an individual activity.