Multiplex of display and manufacture of costumes in XENIA in Nafplio
This thesis has as a subject of study the housing of a costume museum in the area of the abandoned Xenia hotel in Nafplio, on the hill of Acronafplia.
It is a three story building of 3.293 m2 with a basement and a loft, designed by the architect I. Triantafillidis and functioned as a hotel from 1958 until the 1999.
The Costume Culture Museum is not a conventional museum but aims at the interaction of clothing production and their display. Besides the central exhibition located on the ground floor, the first floor is going to house small studio-exhibition rooms for rent for designers.
On the second floor, shelters were designed both for designers and for guests of the museum. At the same time, the central exhibition hall will be configured properly and will host fashion shows (catwalks)
During summer the fashion shows will be hosted in the outdoors where an 800 m2 pool will be built. At other times the pool will be free for use from the public with changing rooms and showers in the basement.
Both inside and outside the building there are cafes and a store for the financial support of the multiplex. On the second floor are the staff’s offices, while in the basement, storage areas were designed according to the rules of the maintenance of fabric and clothing items.
Regarding to the museological program of the building, the exhibits come from the collections of the Peloponnesian Folklore Museum with garments and accessories from both Greek and foreign designers.
The restoration of the building was chosen to be done without major changes and to maintain its simple form and style, after the necessary steps were taken of course, to clean the marks of time and vandalism. On floors, specifically, the typology of the rooms of the existing hotel are maintained.
The configuration of the outdoor space and the pool specifically, is done according to the engravings of the existing castle walls that surround the building, always trying to maintain and highlight it.
