Kivotos: Dream space for all children!

Chest: Dream space

Oporto Elounda Deluxe Resort / ELOUNDA

Design and construction: 2001

Ark

Location: Porto Elounda Deluxe Resort, Elounda Lasithiou

Architectural Office: Polyanna Paraskeva + partners

Static Study: E. Tsakanika, G. Tzortzis

Civil Engineers: E. Tsakanika, G. Tzortzis

Space for the stay and creative employment of children up to ten years old. It is located in Elounda, Lasithi Prefecture, Crete, part of the Porto Elounda Deluxe Resort Hotel, in a lush olive grove.

It includes workshops for creative work, a dining room, rest and sleeping areas, and bathrooms. Landscaped areas for play, theatre, gardening, as well as water surfaces surround the building.

The Ark, as a preservation of life and a vessel for saving the children's world, is a wooden construction on solid bases and volumes that emerged from the water, in some places normal and in others distorted by the violent impacts. The balance is internal, the volumes working together in stability of form and function.

The liquid element has a strong presence inside and outside the building, sometimes in the form of stagnant surfaces and sometimes in the form of flows where the water it is lost and found again, creating small waterfalls, sounds and colors, starting points of activity and imagination. A symbol of renewal and hope, the rainbow is a tangible, spiraling, metallic play.

Ark

Oporto Elounda Deluxe Resort / ELOUNDA

Design and construction: 2001

Structural Engineers: E. Tsakanika, G. Tzortzis

An area designed for the creative activities of children up to 10 years old. It is located on the site of Porto Elounda Deluxe Resort, in Elounda of the Lasithi Region, on the island of Crete, in a verdant olive grove.

Included are workshop spaces, dining room, resting and sleeping area, bathroom facilities, and basement for auxiliary use. In the surrounding area one can find ponds, open-air playgrounds, and space for theater and gardening activities.

The "Ark", an archetypical symbol that carries the preservation of life and exists as a rescue medium of the "world of children", is a lightweight wooden construction based on robust volumes that emerge from water.

The volumes may well clash, thus distorting the wooden superstructure, but at the same time, they maintain an inner balance as they cooperate with regard to form and internal function.

The element of water is marked, both in the surrounding area and the interior of the Ark, motionless or flowing, making small waterfalls, sounds colors, where the possibilities for playing are continuously renewed and fantasy starts all over again. The rainbow symbol of renewal and hope is made into a construction – a whirl of joy and game.

Chest: Dream space

Reports - Awards:

2002 • Greek participation of SADAS in its awarding process European Union Award for Fast-paced Architecture – Mies Van der Rohe 2003, with the project Children's area: "Ark", in Elounda on the island of Crete.

2003 • November: Participation in the 10-member team of engineers who formed the Greek participation of EDEM in the International Exhibition of Architecture "DiverseCity - architect" of RIBA, which started in Dublin and will tour in 2005 in Europe.

2004 • November: Participation in D' Biennale Young Greek Architects, with the project "Ark", area for children at the “Porto Elounda” hotel. The exhibition was held in Gazi, in the Municipality of Athens.

2004 • November: Participation in the 15-member team of engineers who formed the Greek participation of EDEM in the International Exhibition of Architecture "Les Femmes dans les batiments" of ARVHA, which started in September in Paris and will tour in 2005 in Europe.

2004 • November: Participation in the 3^the Triennale: "Architecture in Crete 2004" carried out by the KAM (Center for Mediterranean Architecture) at the Great Arsenal, in Chania, Crete.

2004 • July: Individual exhibition of works in the framework of the 18^u Renaissance Festival of Rethymno, in the Artillery Hall of Fortetsa.

2005 • Participation in the exhibition organized by KAM at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

2005 • Contemporary Architectural Project Award of SADAS – Panhellenic Union of Architects, in category I – Aris Konstantinidis for the project for children: "Ark", at the "Porto Elounda" hotel in Crete. The exhibition was held at the Benaki Museum in Athens.

Publications:

• Greek getaways ROLLY ZARACOUDI, Barnabe publications, November 2001
• Best of the best 2003, No.2 Collector's Edition, January 2003
• TEE Bulletin issue 2316, October 25, 2004
• Express yourself, Issue 1, December 2004
• AREA, Italian magazine, July August 2004 issue, dedicated to modern Greek architecture.
• SUBJECTS OF SPACE + ARTS, Annual review, issue 36/2005, on the topic HOUSING / PUBLIC SPACE IN GREECE
• Female engineer, issue 17, March 2005
• Architects, Journal of SADAS-PEA, issue 52, July/August 2005
• MATERIAL AND BUILDING, issue 74, December/January 2006

Press reports:

• THE DAILY, July 29, 2001. Article by Eleni Bistika
• Free press, sheet no. 8.980, June 7, 2005. Article "Awards with paradoxes" by Hara Tzanavaras
• THE NEWS, June 6, 2005. Article "Give Architecture back to the city" by Elli Falida
• THE DAILY, sheet no. 25.998, Article "Architecture in Benaki"
• RETHYMNIOTIC NEWS, sheet no. 9.050, June 4, 2005
• AEGEAN BLUE 2005

Architect: Polyanna Paraskeva

Chest: Dream space