PX SIX THRESHOLDS 2012 - 2014

The space for play stretches on the foothills of the Acropolis, alongside one of the City’s most important pedestrian streets which leads to the New Acropolis Museum. The north side of the street is defined by six separate ownerships and buildings of different periods, including three listed neoclassical buildings and polykatoikias of the 30’s and 60’s, while the south side is occupied by a listed elementary school designed by Patroklos Karantinos in 1931. Due to the proximity to the school, the space while degraded with the typical concrete configurations of flower beds and sittings of the 70’s, remains a very busy place used both by children and their guardians mainly during the hours that school is dismissed.

The entrances to the ownerships -the thresholds- gave a rhythm and character to the intervention. Their reinstatement determined the organisation of the space, which was thus divided into six sections, on the projections of the ownerships’ boundaries. From the west to the east, the first, third and fifth section, function as accesses to the school. On the south side of the second and third section is where the main playing area is located, surrounded by concrete configurations of parabolic shapes which become sitting and playing elements engulfing the existing trees. The selected equipment is aimed towards toddlers and children aged six and twelve years old. Balance and tumble toys have been specified, as they develop the children’s ability to focus while shaping important social skills and encouraging communication through observation, storytelling and conversation.