Thessaloniki, Greece

The New Pinewood Building

YEAR

2020

AREA

LOCATION

Thessaloniki, Greece

PHOTOGRAPHER


This project was a collaboration with 406 Architects as an joined entry to the invited competition for the design of the New Pinewood Building in Anatolia College.

The challenges for the design of this new school are focused on three sections: to create a 21st century school that responds to the demands of modern education, to incorporate the multicultural element of it’s students in the local environment and finally its own integration in the historic American College “Anatolia”.

The new school is designed to be a place of gathering and learning and to also operate as a framework for the development of social skills and critical thinking. The design introduces new spaces into the teaching typology, “the cave spaces”, where students gather together in order to achieve free communication without the aspects of a conventional classroom.

The multicultural origins of students require an iconic building invoking architectural elements embedded in diverse cultural models, architectural movements and educational traditions. This element is the atrium. The school’s walls and circulation surround a square acting as a central focal point, which can be considered a fundamental architectural principle that connects and promotes socializing and entertainment.

The inclusion of this building in a campus with a predefined structure around a prominent axis of everyday use inspires the perforation of the new block. The existing axis runs continuously from Macedonia Hall to the football pitch, which becomes wider as it goes through the entrance and the atrium and therefore becomes a newfound opportunity to stop and rest. The submersion of the building helps its unification with the environment.

Partners in Charge
Tasos Georgantzis, Maria Tsaftari

Design Team 
Zacharias Kechagioglou, Dimitra Parathyra, Katerina Saraptzian, Michalis Tsiougkas

Contractor
406 architects