The district of the project is mountain Hymettus, one of the five mountains of Attica, that has maintained its biodiversity. Hymettus was known from the ancient times, for its marbles and honey.
In low altitudes the place is covered with Mediterranean plants. As the altitude increases, the visitor observes small plants, which are proper for animals’ food. That’s why the mountain is full of paths, created years ago.
The specific area of the project is delimited by the ring road of Hymettus and the limits of municipality of Papagos suburb. In this area are included, a women’s monastery of Saint Ioannis, a tennis club and a few beehives that belong mainly to amateur apiarists.
The hole area is characterized by panoramic beautiful view and by the destruction of the natural landscape for various reasons. (parking, waste disposal, etc.)
The purpose of the project, is to restore the natural landscape, to create a supralocal pole for contact with the nature and finally to give the chance to existing and new apiarists to assemble all the phases, from the production to the marketing of honey, in a specific area.
The first phases of the project are those of the analysis of the region. Analysis of streets and paths and variety of plants.
The planning of the new plantings and footpaths was created as a reproduction of the elements of the environment. There are cases that the plantings imitate the existing vegitation and elsewhere the proposed landscape provides bigger concentration of apiarian plants.
The logic of absolutely distinguishable intervention was used in the planning of the buildings.
This apiarian park includes new plantings and new paths that are connected with the existing paths of region, a complex of five new buildings of minimal dimensions and footpaths with cannobies and sitting areas. There are provided spaces for beehives, in which will be assembled the scattered beehives of region and new ones also. Each apiarist might use the installations in order to pack and sell his product in apiarian park. The basic building includes rooms of concentration, storage and packing of honey, and a place of destroyed beehives repair. There is also a space for informative and recreational events, a cafeteria, an office for the person in charge and sanitary area for the visitors.
The panoramic view of the district from the north approach allows the visitor to organise the way that he prefers to follow, depending of the weather and the time he wants to spend there.
The materials that were used in the building and at the landscape constructions, reflect the relation with the natural environment, to create an interesting and also homogeneous picture.
The framework columns of the buildings, are made of iron elements, that hold the slabs of reinforced concrete. Cement panels are covering the metal skeleton, shaping the perimetric walls.Those are also covered with wooden panels of various sizes. These wooden surfaces will be painted with colours in soft earth nuances. The concrete roofs will be covered on the top with natural gravel. Brown-gray nuances of the gravels roof, and the soft earth nuances of the perimetric wooden panels, make the building similar with the remainder landscape.
There are two types of coverings at the pergolas. The first type will be constituted from wooden beams and the second type of covering will be manufactured by films of oxidized coper, with binding seams to various directions, giving the sense of a fold shelter.
The footpaths that are covered with pergola, will have for floor wooden boards. The other footpaths will be constructed of concrete with final coating by pebbles.
Additional areas of flooring are made of natural parallelepipedal stones, which are placed on the soil with intermediary rabbet. These areas will intervene between the two types of paths and between natural ground and path. The paths on where the multicolour beehives are organized, will be shaped with this last type of flooring.