The subject of the project is the study, recovery and regeneration of a seashore dune environment in Lakonia, Greece, which has long been threatened, because intensive summer tourism and winter flooding violently intervene in the landscape.
In this environment dunes play a crucial role, as they act as physical dikes, protecting the inner area and the villages from flooding. The concept of the proposal is the development of some new “regulators”, that will act as amplifiers of the existing dunes, as well as “habitation receptors” for people during summer and nature throughout the seasons. The receptor is intended for temporary human habitation, that in one year’s time, will be probably covered with sand and plants.
Firstly, an ecological study of this environment showed that the most suitable area for human development is the backdune, which is the most tolerant area. Secondly a thorough analysis of the special ecological characteristics of the landscape – like the relation between patches, or the way dunes react throughout the seasons -, determined human and nature habitation that emerges as a great need.
The form of the receptor emerged after numerous digital simulations were made representing the ways that the terrain deforms when new dunes are being created because of the enhancement of plants growth in one year’s time. The bearing structure is designed to be exclusively made from ecological materials like reed, which exists in abundance in the study area, and a kind of net, which supports the growth of plants. After all plants play the most important role in the creation of a new dune and its stabilization. In this whole procedure the receptor itself plays a factor of enhancement of both vegetation and sand hills.
The approach mentioned above, is based on the fact that landscape’s recovery must give emphasis not only to its typical features but also to its dynamic effects over time. This has to do more with strategy and less with aesthetics. What is of high importance is that receptor’s geometries will serve, in a beneficial way, the recovery of the existing ground, as well as the expansion of dunes, considering a landscape that produces new landscapes in turn.
The diploma project “More Than Just A Sand Hill_ Inhabiting Seashore Dunes”, received “Special Mention” in the “d3 Unbuilt Visions 2016” international architectural design competition.
Project Title: “More Than Just A Sand Hill_ Inhabiting Seashore Dunes”
Type: Diploma Project
Student: Doumani-Korka Eirini
Supervisor: Stavros Vergopoulos
School: School of Architecture Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Year: 2016
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