NATIONAL RESISTANCE MUSEUM AND MONUMENT TO ELECTRA APOSTOLOU IN NEON HERAKLEION, ATHENS

 << Hommage Demetrios  Issaias – Tasis  Papaioannou (Homepage)

1. First prize at an architectural competition in collaboration with E.Vassou, architect, and S.Gyftopoulos, H. Loukopoulou and K.Filippa, students of architecture, 1989.

The building’s positioning on the plot was calculated so as to leave the largest possible space for a square in front of it. A dominant linear volume, placed diagonally on the plot, bound this space. The austere compositional lines of the ground floor project into the square, while the continuous stepped levels stress the monumentality of the building. 

The building consists of two units: the exhibition space- monuments and the multipurpose- lecture hall.
The projected volume is made lighter through a series of transversal walls and the placing of the museum halls above the ground floor; this unifies both visually and actually the square with the building’s rear courtyard.

2. Third prize at an architectural competition in collaboration with E.Vassou, architect, and S.Gyftopoulos, H. Loukopoulou and K.Filippa, students of architecture, 1989.

Three basic units can be distinguished in the building:
• The multipurpose meeting hall,
• The “Electra Apostolou hall”
• And the “National Resistance” unit.

The proposal’s primary compositional element is the “itinerary”, expressed in space through the “aerial” passages interlinking the volumes.
The volume of the meeting hall is projected and differentiated through its sloping roof, which “rises” from the surface of the square. Through the use of the light metal roof structure as well as transparent side surfaces, a particular effort was made not only to avoid the form of a closed hall, but instead to give the impression of a covered open- air space.

The Electra Apostolou hall is open on plan and is elevated on the south- west side of the plot.
The exhibition areas develop on two levels contained in the austere rectangular volume, which is defines by the vertical elements.

Demetrios  Issaias – Tasis  Papaioannou