Floating Prism

NTUA

Idea projektu

Ktena square as an urban room, introverted, an era of intense sensation. In contrast to the wider urban landscape, the attempt is to shape a mental and theoretical dipole, using elements of Apollonian and Dionysian spirit. Two different sensible worlds: one of measure, logic, temperance, and another one, inner, hidden world of intemperance, of ecstasy. The confrontation of two forces through the space; into the space between the urban area and the square -as an urban room.The proposal aims to form a semi-outdoor exhibition space, which is planned to operate at ground level, as well as on the upper levels of surrounding buildings in consecutive environments. The spatial identity will change from day to night, by the transition from natural to electric light, by visual hallucinations for the perception of space. Through this bipolar and visually ambiguous operation, the aim is the renegotiation of real space and its perception. In fact it is renegotiated, the natural- real versus the imaginary-conceptual space.

Popis projektu

Having as main tool of approaching the intemperance-cheating of vision, the aim is to doubt what is perceived and at the same time to introduce the meaning of sin. By shaping a graded perimetric path and utilizing the surrounding buildings, the viewer discovers new visions of space and of the objects, which look at him. A voyeur game is played with terms of mutual or not observation, concealment or disclosure, illusion or reality. The path peaks on the roof, where the Apollonian world restores rationality and reveals the Fall. The ambassador nature of the space, proposes a dreamlike, but sensible space. The purpose is the launch of searching for the "sensible", the design of a wine consumption urban room and an exhibition of objects, subjects, views and viewers.
The transparent glass prism is discreetly coming to cover Ktena square, consisting of a "testimony" for external conditions (day, night, weather) under the influence of which it is transformed. The glass structural elements and surfaces are dominant, in an attempt to handle transparency as "materiality" and main structural element. The interior and exterior spaces tend to be assimilated. The visitor-viewer is absorbed into a condition, where every distinction between the spaces is eliminated and the boundary is in quest. Thus giving the impression of an endless, inseparable vision. Through spatial diagrams and seemingly arbitrary initial choices, a potential space is configurated where various systems interact (entrance, movements, crowd, weather conditions), leading to non-determined final results. The traces of the interaction process are a unique spatial snapshot each time, a powerful expression of reality, in a series of endless changes in the space. Although the constructed-designed space remains an area of standard materials and structural elements (columns, beams) - perhaps more innovative (glass)- the suspension of swinging is attempted through the removing of the "reassuring foundation". The prism is on an upper level, superior to that of the ground and there is no vertical core.
The above feeling of swinging is complemented by the inner atmosphere, which aims at forming a flow space for events: an inner atmosphere, which is characterized as blurred, by becoming unclear or less distinct for external observers. The human body, as a potential body - a system of possible movements in space (Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of perception) - is released into a constantly transformed space of congestion and collusion. The entrance to the prism means the absence of a program. The space cannot be read based on its use or typology. This automatically removes from the visitor any tool to read the space that falls under specific reference systems. A space that is preposterous, absurd, intimate or even aggressive, aims at releasing the subconscious and the desire of the subject, in the context of an illusory and sensual architectural approach that brings back the question of the Dionysian spirit of the Nietzschean thought.

Technické informace

The Prism is totally made of Glass. SGP laminated glass panels are shaping the whole space in an attempt to eliminate solid and non-transparent materials. The main structural idea consists of two composite-sandwich glass slabs, four extended composite glass beams, which anchor to the surrounding buildings, and vertical elements, which in total shape a rigid frame for the glass panels forming the prism's facades. Connections between glass panels are achieved through stainless steel joints, in-built, and thus unseen.