The city of Athens has not emerged from an urban plan, but from the needs of its inhabitants. It may has an intense residential development, but the contact with the natural landscape is difficult. Attica΄s basin looks like a sea full of buildings, from which emerge islands as exceptions. These islands refer to the main four mountains that characterize Attica. One of which, Hymettus inspire us to bring the towns people closer to the nature.

 The proposal aims to sensitize its residents with a nearby escape from its main axes. It targets to create a vertical connection between the city and the top of the mountain, giving access to everyone. At the same time, aspires to change the view of Attica΄s residents related to nature and the problems that have arisen through the extensive use and waste of the natural landscape. Some of them are fires, floods, extinction of fauna.

 A rise to this intervention gave an abandoned quarry, out of many that exist in the surrounding mountains, which bears important historical and cultural elements for a long time. The proposal refers to a multi-functional stairway that connects the foothills of the mountain and the city with the natural terrain and the summit. A bike route between mining sites based on existing trails, a rallying point, a dam, and infrastructure for various kinds of cultural and environmental use are being proposed too.

 “The Great Staircase” seeks to get residents in touch with the city’s precious natu- ral reserve and to create an infrastructure that may be the starting point for a new kind of human coexistence with the flora and fauna of the area.