City and Marina- Patras Marine Habitant

This is an experimental project about a marina of the example of Patras city. However, the criteria of the project are scientific and a continuation of a research work of almost four years of work.

The connection with urbanity, scale, boundary, and environmental pressures were studied. The vocabulary of the structural components that was sought is based on a dual methodology.

At first, the three axes (residential units, port structure, marina facilities) and secondly, the approach based on Voronoi diagrams, the cells of which are not only a morphological choice, but a design mechanism that combines aesthetics, functionality, and physical parameters.

The diagrams were adapted to the needs of the marina by shaping land facilities, berthing positions, or traffic flows. Bold environmental additions of land or artificial islands, the reuse of historical port structures as a base for attracting large-draft vessels in coexistence with smaller ones, are inspired by bold programs of contrasting paradigms studied across the Mediterranean.

The extension of the city’s boundary to the sea and the urban diffusion had the ambitious aim of making the modern redefinition of the marina as a complex of expansion of new uses—cultural, economic, transportation, and a multimodal hub for travel and cruise.