Greek architecture magazine Domés has recently announced the winners of the DOMES 2018 Architecture Awards, which has been organised for the ninth time this year. A committee consisting of architects Alexander Brodsky (Bureau Alexander Brodsky, Moscow), Gonçalo Byrne (Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos, Lisbon) and Jürgen Mayer (J. MAYER H. und Partner, Architekten, Berlin) have awarded an award and two honourable mentions in four categories. The existing categories of Best Built Work, Best First Work by a Young Architect and Best Project have been expanded with a fourth category this year for Best Built Work of New Architecture in an Existing Building. This new category is particularly telling of how the industry is developing in recent years: the construction sector has shrunk significantly, so smaller-scale renovations and interventions inside existing buildings has become more of the norm, especially in densely-built Athens. Keep reading to see who the winners are in the four categories.
Concept texts provided by DOMES, translated from the Greek by und. Athens.
All photos via Domés. Credits: please see end of article.
Ring House. Residence at Aghia Galini in Rethymno, Crete.
By decaARCHITECTURE — Alexandros Vaitsos, Carlos Loperena
Award & Peers Award in the “Best Built Work of the Years 2013-2017” category
Ring House lies on the south coast of Crete, just 165 nautical miles from the Sahara Desert. Two beams of visible concrete create a ring that traces the morphology of the ground atop a hill. The ring creates shaded zones, ventilated spaces that are open on both sides, and surfaces for solar panels. It also shelters an interior garden with a variety of citrus trees and herbs. The design of the residence and its immediate surroundings creates a microclimate, an oasis within an intensely beautiful yet bodily demanding landscape. On a larger scale, Ring House’s design is an attempt to restore the natural landscape, which has been scarred by random and unplanned roads.
Solicitor’s Office and Artist’s Studio in Pagkrati, Athens.
By Agis Mourelatos
Award in the “Best First Work by a Young Architect of the Years 2013-2017” category
Two abating but independent street-level shops of an old Athenian polykatoikia (apartment building) in Pagkrati become the frame of this architectural intervention that has transformed them into a solicitor’s office and an artist’s studio respectively. The main element of this double intervention is the creation of two self-standing, small-scale modular structures that are independent from the existing building, both inside the shell and on the side facing the street. The aim of this choice is to redefine how a street-level space within a dense urban landscape can be inhabited, through highlighting the relationship between what was added and what was already there.
Site-Specific Concept Space in Metamorfosi, Athens.
By A31 ARCHITECTURE, Praxitelis Kondylis
Award in the “Best Work of New Architecture in an Existing Building of the Years 2013-2017” category
This is a concept space in Metamorfosi dedicated to contemporary Greek architecture, design, architectural lighting and contemporary art. The space is intended for exhibitions, events and happenings that promote Greek architecture and creative thinking in the applied arts in general. For the work the architects and engineers of A31 ARCHITECTS collaborated with visual artists, light consultants, landscape architects, industrial designers and graphic designers. The facilities of a total 260 square meters span two levels. Entrance, reception, administration, dark room, atrium with a dry garden, a planted wall and restrooms comprise the first level of a total 180 square meters. The second level of 80 square meters consists of a meeting room, administration office and a small lounge. Structural and added elements are all visible and uncoated, just like the electrical pipework on the ceiling.
Outdoor Worship Space in Casamance, Senegal
By Theoclis Kanarelis
Award in the “Best Project of the Years 2013-2017” category
Inside the outside: Sacred space for Muslims, Christians and Animists.
For the devout, secularism is a restraint, a deprivation of the Holy, of his or her own truth. “In the world but not of the world”. The person is in the world and exits into the sacred space, a contained symbolic void, the paradox of faith. The proposal is a metaphorical and literal exit, a threshold between two worlds: it rises between the sacred and the secular void. The geometries are the result of geographical and religious references. Two worlds, two geometries: each relates to and defends its world. In the atrium one can find people, shadows, soil, sacred excerpts, iconography, water. The sky is a roofless dome. The niches of this temple invite, contain, shelter, encourage, protect rituals, gatherings, prayers, secrets, pleas, talks, tears, excluding the image of the contemporary world as temporary and circumstantial. The structure bears no symbols as to reduce and weaken old differences and painful memories. The execution is done with local materials, using the technique of rammed earth. There is no main entrance but openings of equal size on all sides. The building is seven metres high and covers the border of the given plot. The structure footprint is 328 square metres.
‘Not ROUNDabout’. Refurbishment of Gavriil Haritou Square / Ekato Hourmadies in Rhodes, Greece.
By Elli Karyati, Danae Mavridou, Xanthi Sotiraki, Chrysi Sotiraki
Peers Award in the “Best Project of the Years 2013-2017” category
The study deals with the redesign of Haritou / Ekato Hourmadies Square (1933) on the northern edge of the town of Rhodes—a monumental work that is a typical example of colonial urban planning with elements of exoticism. The design has to do with the environmental upgrade and the redefining of public space in the town’s touristic core, where oversized buildings have surrounded [the square] and have imposed a circular movement in it as if on a roundabout. The study fortifies the linearity of the square and reopens its vantage points towards the sea; meanwhile, the space’s unified design treatment with a reordering of surrounding streets and clean geometric shapes fortifies the square’s re-incorporation in the urban space. The square will become a year-round destination with a super-local character for residents, and the starting point for a longer route for visitors.
You can find all the winning projects plus thirty more awards and honourable mentions in the DOMES 2018 Awards issue of Domés magazine. For more information contact subs@domes-architecture.com or visit the Domés magazine Facebook page.
Image captions:
1, 2, 3: Ring House by decaARCHITECTS. Photo by decaARCHITECTS.
4, 5: Solicitor's office and artist's studio by Aris Mougelatos. Photo by Yiorgis Yerolymbos.
6, 7: Site-specific concept space by A31 ARCHITECTURE. Photo by Yiannis Hatziaslanis.
8: Outdoor worship space by Theoclis Kanarelis.
9, 10: No ROUNDabout by Elli Karyati, Danae Mavridou, Xanthi Sotiraki, Chrysi Sotiraki.
