Fragment as a tool for transformation _ The case of Plato’s Academy
Author name: Selena Tsoukala
Instagram account: @selena.ts
Website: https://archmemos.wixsite.com/website
In Athens people live in some way between fragments of the ancient world. In Plato’s Academy which is a peculiar neighborhood in northwest Athens there is the homonymous park, where fragments from antiquity are found there.
This Diploma Thesis has as a starting point the meaning of fragment and aims to use it as a basic tool in the recreation of the park. Firstly, the park is understood as a place of dense vegetation, seemingly unorganized that in points almost unexpectedly is disrupted by spatial events-glades. Those glades are understood as “microcosmi” that wish to narrate the history of a palimpsest that seems to have been in Plato’s Academy all along, but in reality it never existed. The spatial events-glades as contemporary findings allong with the ancient findings wish to create an environment where collective memory and urban life coexist in this important historic locus, that now seems to be disconnected not only from the rich archaeological past of Athens but also disconnected from itself.
Having as solid references the Piranesi’s “Fragments of Rome” and Aldo Rossi’s “La Citta Analoga”, this project attempts to seek not only the morphological continuity from ancient times but also the importance of keeping alive a historical place even through imaginative architectural narrations.
The archaeological sites in Athens as well as the green urban spaces seem like disconnected parts of land that stand as independent islands, rather than an organized system of historic spaces. This discontinuity has cut Plato‘s Academy off its history and relationship with other archaelogical sites.
The archaeological park (Plato’s Academy) stands between a highly dense domestic area and an industrial area.
Site Analysis
Fragments inside the park
The concept
The Transformation
The imaginative narration of the park
Groundfloor
Microcosmi
