Residential Apartment Building at Kazes School

2006

Architects: Maria Kokkinou, Andreas Kourkoulas

Consultant Architect: John Peponis

Associate Architect: Nicholas Paplomatas

Project Team: Menelaos Kokkinos, Manolis Stavrakakis

Structural Engineer: Andreas Mitsopoulos, METER

Mechanical – Electrical Engineer: P. & H. Argyros

Area: 4.300 sq.m.

Frozen Shadow – Hanging Garden

The main concern during the design phase of the block of flats at the Kazes School in Thessaloniki, was the way in which this new building could converse with memories associated with the site.

The memories accompanying the old neoclassical school of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki appear in a game of shadows between the building and the surrounding courtyard. The “chessboard” of occupied and void cubes which characterizes the proposal surfaces on the courtyard playing with the idea of the shadow of the building on the ground, a frozen shadow, a “frozen time”.

The block of flats attempts to constitute a new approach to the concept of multi-storey residential apartment building. While rising at the height of the surrounding buildings, it ‘contains’ a ratio of 1 to 1, closed to open spaces. The two-storey spaces within the building give the opportunity for outdoor spaces and high vegetation. An open space of equal surface in sq.m. is allocated to every apartment.

As a result, open space is housed in the building itself creating a hanging garden.