Environment Museum in Peloponnese, Greece

August 12, 2010 Category: Cultural, Public Buildings

Environment Museum that located in Peloponnese, Greece, was designed by DEMETRIOS ISSAIAS & TASSIS PAPAIOANNOU,The museum is designed to be built on the abrupt of one of the lush, green hills that surround the lake of Stymphalia at Peloponnese, Greece. The museum refers to the lake and consists of two units. The first contains exhibits that relate to the general area. The second unit aims at informing and sensitising visitors to the environment and the ecosystem of the region and their history. The two units are arranged in parallel zones on both sides of a strong linear wall placed transversally to the uneven ground. The delineation of a second axis, vertical to the wall, defines the basic access points and separates the communal facilities from the exhibition areas.

The rhythmical repetition of parallel parapets gives the desired scale to the building and facilitates the creation of exhibitional subdivisions. The simple, dispersed prismatic volumes mark the different functional units and enhance the sense of identification or acknowledgment of the whole space. The central court that slightly turns to the basic axes of the composition is not bound to them, but stands apart from the building and is perceived as a part of the natural environment. The linear synthesis is enhanced by the roofed wooden balcony with view to the lake that is fundamental and principal reference of the museum. At the same time, this wooden structure protects the southern facade of the building from the sun.

The materials and the earthly colours enhance the harmonic inclusion of the building to the natural environment and the landscape of the region. The roughness of the materials is extremely valuable, especially in a country like Greece that is characterised by an intense and blinding light, which lights the materials and then diffuses, promoting the colours and the substances, creating millions of shadows and tones. This game of light and shadow follows and accompanies the local architecture from its birth until today. The museum was completed early 2010 and inaugurated in June 2010.

Environment Museum Design by DEMETRIOS ISSAIAS & TASSIS PAPAIOANNOU