KATERINA TSIGARIDA ARCHITECTS

ZEN AND MARTIAL ARTS TEMPLE

Metaxourgeio, Athens, 2008

The project includes two buildings that introduce a ZEN temple in Metaxourgeio. The buildings are housing Satyanada Yoga and meditation spaces, private spaces for shaolin monks and spaces for marshal arts and taekwondo classes. Their skin, which is formed by strict geometry, aims to "balance" its new functions with the neighborhood's existing land uses, to prevent its private spaces and to suggest new communal ones to the city.

The T shaped site formed the design of two independed orthogonal volumes with a court yard in between. The different building rules that apply for Agisilaou and Granikou Street, determined the design for a two storey "curved" building which holds all the communal functions on Agisilaou St. and a four storey building on Granikou St., the "monastery".
The two buildings communicate on ground level by a courtyard which is shaped through the ZEN garden and the water - places for meditation, spiritual concentration and prayer. On higher level the buildings are connected with a bridge.
Light and darkness, cold and warm materials, seasons and nature, fire and water, yin and yan, elements that complete each other and are equally essential, take part in the design of space, in a way that it encourages the user to reach physical and spiritual balance.