Palazzo L Administrative and residential building Piazza Molino Nuovo 17, Lugano – CH
February 22, 2020
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Owner:

Kavala municipality, Greece

Date:

2022/2023

Prize:

2nd prize competition project


“…. Spoiled neighbourhoods. The mountain around like a burnt mask, without clothes or jewellery, makes the light brighter and mercilessly illuminates the apartment buildings that hurt the sky with their low cost, because they were built in haste or cheaply and above all to catch up with the development of the city, after the decade of the fifties, a time when other cities knew the words "compensation-exchange", "bachelor room and bathroom", "boiler and common PPF costs", it began to decline with the disappearance of the tobacco trade that supported it. In one decade, that of the seventies, everything that was old and wise was devastated and demolished that time and people slowly built to bring this common and indifferent face that we don't even want to look at, because we know that it hides unpleasant surprises.

All are now forming in their final form, without the salt of tobacco licking the streets and facades and with the impression that the past will soon be avenged.

At least find a place with a little coolness for those people who have buzzing heads and open wounds on their faces at night and who love to live...."

Kosma Charpantidis, Mania Poleos, 1993, ISBN 960-205-290-2
p. 16/17

The project proposes densely wooded fronts to hide the anarchic, ordinary and bad buildings to define an urban square opening towards the sea, dominated by the fortified castle and the Camara (Byzantine aqueduct taken over by the Ottomans which brought water to the old City).

Rainwater is collected in cisterns under the square and redistributed to cool, clean and water trees and plants. The Urban space is completely free from car traffic.