KOUM KAPI
Architectural Competition
Location: Chania Crete Greece
Design team: Konstantin Thorvald Barlas, Sofia Papageorgiou, Panagiotis Mouzakis
Client: Municipality of Chania
Design date: 2013
The aim of our proposal is to create the conditions for a wide public use and an infrastructure of various activities. Our desire is to rectorate and to expand the relationship between the city and sea. The way it is pro- posed to achieve these goals is to overturn the clear boundary that creates the wall, between the city and the sea, creating a smooth transition from one level to another and to emerge the relationship of the city with the sand and the sea.
For this reason, two parallel paths along the sea are created. The rst is placed at the level of the city and is essentially a pedestrian who greets the people and take them to all parts of the coastal front. At the points where it is permitted, the intervention retained stone
wall, to denote the overthrow of the threshold and to emphasize the difference between the old and new situation.
In the extension of the city streets, platforms and configurations are created, which create direct commu- nication. Wanting to reinforce the idea of the sand (koum kapi : door of sand) and the creation of the complete erosion from the sea, diamond shaped and sized voids are created on the platforms, which are changing smoothly and reminding the erosion that material suffered over time.