At Microlimano, at an end of the Kastela hill, there is a plan for a sailing club consisting of all the appropriate infrastructure facilities and equipment, including training and recreation. The plan is beyond the local politics, where questions regarding the management of the limit between land and sea are placed. Through an analysis of the forces exercised in the region, the stand of the user towards the landscape is investigated.
The place of intervention constitutes an important point of the coastline, as it “stands” opposite to a powerful topography. The point is located at the end of the land, under the largeness of Kastela’s hill, at an unobscured opening to the Saronic Gulf. Characteristics of the place, such as the limit of the seashore, the height of the buttress wall, the centrifugal force of turn are analysed and interpreted as the force of place. Elements of the place are received as constants which are analysed into basic physical principles and set questions of handling. The sea level is taken as a reference. The seashore, as an erratic limit, sets the question of handling the limit between land and sea. The planning of the space is dealt as a continuity of the place’s interpretation.
What is planned is the construction of a square and the facilities of the sailing club. The square, as a public place, makes a passage to the next cove - a piece of the linear course of the coastline. The construction of the Club is right to the land-sea limit. The club is targeting a wide range of people, its objective being the teaching of sailing and the familiarization with the terms of the sea. In the construction 3 courses-movements are involved: the movement of the athletes, who are the permanent users of the installations, the movement of the students, who are the seasonal users and the movement of visitors-sightseer, who have access in areas above the sea level, with the possibility of observation of natural phenomena of the water sports, as well as the surveillance of the functional procedures of sailing. The installations include space for parking and anchorage of yachts, storages, w.c., dressing rooms, gym, a gathering place for the athletes, teaching rooms, secretariat, bar and a semi-open-air amphitheatre. The installations are mainly semi-open-air and occupy 30% of he total volume. The general dimensions of the construction are 130 m Χ 20 m elevated at 18 m from sea level. The basic structural element is the cell which accommodates the club’s facilities. The cell is fusiform and is constituted by two symmetric curved elements by prestressed armed concrete. The structure is partly sunk under the surface of sea and its basis rests totally in the subsoil. The installations, following the functional needs, they are either suspended from the cells upper part, or they are resting at its lower part and they are made of metal, wood or glass.
Through this construction, the surrounding landscape and the optical contact with the space, one can experience the human relation with the landscape. Furthermore, the human position towards the ground limits is redefined.