Athens Urban Market – Athens, Greece

Public Space
Athens, Greece
2013

The market, once a place for social and communal provocation, has been reduced over the centuries, altered into its current typology – a space based primarily on the viewing, sale, and purchase of products from pre-specified vendors occupying pre-assigned positions in a pre-designated configuration.
A new model, embedded with social intention, might promote greater interaction, confidence, and communication, establishing a space where the exchange of not only products but also views, perspectives, and ideas flourish. The market as an agora, a place of synthesis covering communicative and social needs. An individual pavilion might house the traditional sale of items, but could also contain a pop-up workshop, an art display, an open kitchen for communal cooking, or even a simple library annex, creating a unique network of experiences. A market extroverted, multifunctional, and flexible, capable of accommodating vendors, collective activities, installations, discussions, and urban serendipity.

In order to promote more opportunistic interactions and to break down typical role relationships, we have designed individual circular booths, open for occupation by individuals or groups. Each circular pavilion, bound by a semi-permeable surface of flexible white wires, creates a sense of equality, an omni-directional approach that allows relationships of entry/exit and spectator/participant to become blurred. Enhancing this, each pavilion employs a simple shift of the roof surface, an action that creates moments where a passerby might be under the roof of the pavilion without being physically inside of it. Beyond a singular stall, the arrangement of kiosks is intentionally free and flexible. Changing its configuration with frequency, a series of overlapping and interweaving movements emphasize exploration and interaction through non-prescriptive directions and unintended destinations.


Project Team

Leonidas Trampoukis, Eleni Petaloti, Brandon Maldonado
Total built area
1000m²
Address
Monastiraki Sq. Athens