Former Coal Mine

Restoration of former coal mining areas in Western Macedonia

Competition 2016. The architectural intervention seeks to feature the region’s history, exploit its potential, re-establish the bonds with landscape’s natural values and restore the human scale in the area.

Basic Elements

Three parks: I. Recreation park with multicultural activities II. Protected area for wild fauna and flora III. Energy park

Artificial lakes/ reservoirs

Crooked linear paths unifying the parks and making a straightforward reference to the “lightning” – public power corporation’s logo – which dominates the design style from the large to the small scale

Reminiscent elements of the industrial use

Car and bike lanes

Entrances of the recreation park reminding of the narrow passage to the underground lignite mines

Observations points

The entrance to the park passes through two parallel organic elements leading to Kinani and Fila transparent metal constructions. Kinani is the main axis of information about park events, a gathering hub of daily shared experiences for theresidents of the nearby settlements. Fila is the spot where the historical palimpsest of the region recovers.

The reference point of the route is water that flows from the stream to the reservoir. All activities succeed one another with a flow motion, diffusing into each other and creating continuity with the route.

The reservoir with the sunken theatre is the heart of the park.

The achitectural approach aims to reveal new ways to experience in common the lost qualities of Greel landscape. “It is an aestetic intervention in the landscape and simultaneously nature’s intervention in the sculpture”. In collaboration with Mariza Angelidi, Nikolas Arnis, Nella Golanda.