AS.Architecture-Studio | Onassis Cultural Centre

in Architecture by editor — 10:57 am | February 7, 20130 comments

The building is designed as a simple, diaphanous volume built of Thassos marble, elevated over a glass base. The facades are simultaneously opaque and transparent depending on whether one perceives them from near or afar. The project is revealed in the movement, the approach towards the building. The opacity of the stone is balanced by transparency, rhythm and matter.

This urban scenography is based on the treatment of the building’s facades as a living, responsive membrane, reflecting the activity of the Foundation itself and its openness onto the city and the world. The simplicity of the volume and the abstraction of architectural expression create the monumental aspect that would have seemed almost impossible because of the small size of the plot.

Beyond the facades, a precious and surprising object that brings together the three auditoria crosses the entire building. This is the heart of the project. Magnified by the void surrounding it, its envelope forms the ideal stage for the Cultural Centre’s events, whose presence is marked at the scale of the building and that of the city.

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