Ephemeral Structures in the City of Athens
Competition. Athens GR. 2002
Competition Brief

The competition is an invitation to architects worldwide
to rethink and give an architectural form to their relationship
with the city of Athens by designing ephemeral structures.

No specific site was given for the installation of the structures.
Their design should guarantee easy mounting and de-mounting.
All structures should be movable and designed "in the name of Athens".
This implies that they should neither be conceived as site-specific nor
generic. The ephemeral structures will rather operate as "urban parasites"
to be adapted to the existing infrastructure of the sites that host them.

The category "Landmarks of Olympic activities" was chosen and the proposal is a structure which doubles up as a landmark of the athletic facilities and a ticket and information booth.

the crane
Its nature: ephemeral, its scale: urban, its image: identifiable, abundantly found, easily mounted, dismounted transported and stored.

appropriation
We appropriate the crane. Our act bestows an identity upon it. From now on any crane is a reminder of Athens, of the Olympics. Landmark becomes Mentalmark.

transformation
We transform the recognizable image of the crane by cladding it with light. It is a satellite receptor for the public to view from afar while also facilitating access to the various Olympic events.

the urban scale
The cityscape is dotted with luminous landmarks. This festive light constellation creates multiple visual connections throughout the city. We re-define the skyline of the city of Athens during the Olympic Games.

the local scale
Where the crane meets the ground, it creates an instant local site, the gate to the destination: tickets, information, images.

image
A skin of reflective mesh impregnated with long-duration luminoscent pigment creates our ephemeral image for the Olympic city. During the day, a reflector of the strong attican sun. At night, a lantern returning the day's energy with an enigmatic glow.

the network
Every city is a palimpsest of networks, an assembly of nodes and vectors. We superimpose our own ephemeral Olympic interface onto the city: Luminous high nodes and optical vectors facilitate navigation.