Public Space Design before Collapse, Patras’ Holy Trinity Hill

Public Space Design before Collapse, Patras’ Holy Trinity Hill

Katerina Zisimopoulou 1, Alexis Fragkiadakis2

1 Architect NTUA-UCLA, Doctorate Candidate, Architecture School, National Technical University of Athens, Greece2 Architect NTUA-UCLA.

AbstractThe Holy Trinity Hill1 area public space design

project in Patras harbor-city, Greece was studied in years 2001-3 and was finally partly constructed in 2006, just on time, according to the geologic studies,before the whole hill or some significant part of it collapsed with devastating consequences.

The modern city is currently located under and overthe hill, united with three grand linear urban staircase landmarks constructed in the late 19th century mid 20th century. The Holy Trinity Hill projectemerged from the need to support the hill and the small scale housing on it but also creates an alternative route to the grandiose St Nicholas staircase, thus providing new urban views and experiences to the pedestrian. The Holy Trinity Hill route emerged from a geologic hazard and evolves discreetly between sizable concrete support walls and over considerable technical underground foundation works.

1 Also called Sakketou or Nursery School or Virgin Mary’s Presentation or Castle Hill (Triantafillou K., 1995)

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The non-linear snakelike route composed of stairs and ramps provides a humble supporting alternative to the impressive dominant St Nicholas staircase now in derelict state. However the servant seems to try to overpower the king. This bipolar connecting condition of the Lower and Upper city, staircase and route, is characterized by different and contradictory space quality experiences. The comparison between them reveals interesting and unexpected dynamic flows and paths through the spaces created and the exciting in-between.

The project involves a current community study which explores the impact of the new route on the local communities. What are the views of the people who interact with the space (local organizations, environmental groups, school students, church)? What is the urban spatial potential created between the staircase and the route? How does the city hall plan to manage this dynamic situation?

Keywords: Public space, in-between, flow, interaction, geology.

1 Introduction

The initial total and the constructed part of the architectural project to be presented has been studiedby the study group of architects V. Farmaki, M. Kourbana, V. Panopoulos, M. Tzavala & K. Zisimopoulou – D. Zisimopoulos, in accordance with the recommendations of the Technical Supervisory Authorityof the City of Patras and the relevant municipal agencies. It is part of the overall study titled "Widening of St George’s Street and Restoration of theNearby Streets & Routes." The paper is actually the comparative study of the constructed outcome of the first phase of a design study involving the surface and pavement formation of the city fringe of St George’s Street Slope (today called 25th of March Street) and the existing monumental St Nicholas

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Staircases. On behalf of our research team, Alexis Fragkiadakis and Katerina Zisimopoulou, this project is a discussion of the city and its connecting conditions, as it explores the subtle tensions after aconstructed public space intervention has been established. We are conducting a research, aiming to evolve into a study, to be offered to the community ofour home town and enhance the potential of its scarce but still dynamic public space on the fringe of its hill adjacent to the historic city center.

1.1 Objectives

The study area extends from St Nicholas stairs to Virgin Mary’s Presentation Street situated on St George’s Street Slope, both connecting the Upper and Lower city of Patras. The constructed phase of the project regards the works of the formation of the surface of the slope. We will try to present the history of the project and focus on the tensions presently existing on the hill slope. This presentation aims to show the two adjacent connecting structures as public space conditions with a dynamic potential for the community of the city. Moreover our research aspires to explore the spatial and social impact of the current public space constructed environment in relation to the historic staircase and the nearby city landmarks. Finally we will try to predict and describe a feasible future environmental expansion under the pressing conditions of the economic crisis.

We wish to pose simple questions and seek answers to be discussed: What is the interaction between the stairs and the routes in the area? What about the space between them? What are the evidences of its usage and who are the everyday inhabitants of the space of the stairs, the route and the in-between?

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2 Case Study Area

2.1 Patras Area

Patras is the capital of Achaia prefecture and a major centre of population and industry in Western Greece. It is the third largest city of Greece with a population of 105.057 (National Statistical Service ofGreece, 2003). Its harbor is a significant commercial and tourist gateway of Western Greece. The cultural contacts with Italy have played an important role in the continuous development of the city.

Painters and engravers depict the city of Patras intheir historic work from two angles. The panorama of Walker in 1804 overlooks the town from the mainland. An 1862 oil painting depicts the town from the port, giving a new perspective of what was then a new state.The way of perceiving the city has changed little since: from the hills and from the sea. The complete picture is obtained by both views. There are two foci of attention in the landscape views as well: the Ionian Sea and the plains and hills on the fringe of Panachaikon Mountain, surrounding the east of the city. The polarity of the landscape identifies the city and separates it into the old Upper Town, built on the southeast side of the hill of the castle, and the new Lower Town, built on the plain along the coast. The hills split the coastal plain to North and South. Five rivers cross the Northern and another fivethe Southern plain. From the water filtering of the river bed a large underground aquifer has been created.

After the liberation of Patras from the Ottomans in1828 and the foundation of the Greek state, the land use plan of the new city was awarded and completed by the military engineer Stamatis Voulgaris. He proposed the establishment of a Renaissance-style city, with a geometric but flexible land use urban plan that takes

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into account topography, traffic connections and the trend towards the sea harbor. The function of the porthas been crucial for the development of the city as the main source of its income. Even when the railroad made its appearance, the sea remained the main way of communication of Patras with the rural hinterland bothwithin and outside the country.

2.2 Geologic Facts

Patras is a city with high seismic risk, as it is very close to centers of high seismicity (Corinthian and Patraikos gulfs, Ionian Sea). It is located in thenorthwestern part of Peloponnesus, in a narrow belt oflow land immediately to the west of Panachaikon Mountain. Exact knowledge of the geological-geotechnical conditions of the urban area is necessaryto provide basic essential information of the ground condition to local authorities, engineers and contractors. This is basic information for the evaluation of both the geological hazards, which are encountered in the area in question, and the dynamic response of structures in the case of seismic activity. The main trend of the faults of the broader area of the city of Patras is NE-SW. The high seismicity of the area is closely related to the above-mentioned fault tectonics and to the existence of grabens2 with a recent seismic activity (Rozos D., Koukis G. & Sabatakakis N., 2006). Although during thelast century the seismic activity in the Patras area was relatively low, there are evidences from historical records that strong earthquakes have occurred.

In 1989 and 1993 the city was struck by earthquakesof small to moderate magnitude (Ms=4,8R and 5,4R respectively) which caused serious structural damages

2 A graben could be defined as a segment of the Earth’s surface lying between parallel faults and depressed by faultmotion relative to the surrounding surface.

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to new multi-storey buildings, while surface ruptures have been noted as reactivated faults traversing the city. The seismic data evaluation indicates that an area of 100 km around the city may expect earthquakes of magnitude of 5,9R with a recurrence interval of 10 years and a magnitude 6,6R or more every 50 years. Patras is located on tectonically active grabens whichare represented by active faults traversing the city (Rozos D., Koukis G. & Sabatakakis N., 2006). A large part of the city, including the study area, is foundedon coastal lowlands, where the geological formations are loose, cohesionless deposits which constitute difficult foundation ground. Therefore, these engineering geological conditions, when combined with the active seismo-tectonic regime of the area (successive earthquakes), have led to serious damage to the constructed environment during past earthquakes.

2.3 The Hill

The ancient city chose as its reference points the hills, where the 'Akron', the 'Acropolis', the place of worship and the city’s castle fort (Georgopoulou-Verra M., 2000) was situated. Today the city chooses the sea and the harbor and turns its back to the hill.The north end of the castle wall has become a linear urban screen, signaling the end of the city and the beginning of nature, reserving unrestricted views to the surrounding landscape. The urban potential for thelost green public space lies in the slope of the hill.The study area, as mentioned before is situated on theslope of the hill and is more or less a parish neighborhood that used to be owned by the church, an area which currently collides with the more powerful city and commercial center. The urban landscape follows the rapid natural slope and the graduated height of the hills, formed by background

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interventions according to their ability to adjust to the regularity imposed by the city plan.

The slope is actually a left-over space both separating and connecting the Upper and Lower city. The current urban condition characterized by the city expansion and the increased automobile traffic exertedextensive pressure on the area the past few decades. Since the stairs and routes on the hill slope are strictly for pedestrian-use, the only automobile street connecting the Upper and Lower city is situatedon the base of the slope of the hill and was substantially widened in the late 1990s. This is St George’s Street and its widening is the reason why theinitial constructed project and the current comparative study emerged. The City Hall expropriated and demolished the small scale houses immediately adjacent to St George’s Street, in order to accomplishthe widening.

The demolition of these properties revealed the hidden role these houses were playing for the hill andthe routes on its slope: their back was actually the only existent retaining structure for the whole hill, supporting both stairs and slope. Almost like the 1970s Land Art and the New Monuments movement, as Gordon Matta Clark may have put it, the action of cutting the small houses in horizontal plan and vertical section revealed the hidden face of architecture “as a clownish and pretentious enterprise” (Bois Y.-A. Krauss R., 1996). The people did not like it, and the City Hall wished to be done with the project. Under the pressure of the imminent earthquake danger or even the unpredictable effects ofdestabilization that might lead the hill to collapse, action needed to be taken to construct all necessary retaining structures.

More than 95.000, 00 kg of iron, 150, 00 (D60) m3 of concrete vertical cast piles, 1.200, 00 meters of 25mm iron micro-piles and 650, 00 m2 of reinforced

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C25/30 concrete have been used to support the sloping hill. The architecture project manipulated the large retaining structures and presented their front to the city, and treated the considerable height differences so as to be climbed as effortlessly as possible. The public space was presented as an event attractor and locator, a threshold to the landmarks on the paths created (stairs, archeological sites and churches). The demolished buildings of Patras New Monuments were kept in place to narrate their story. The route and the stairs are now since 2006 working together as a new urban system one next to another. They both take the inhabitants up and down the hill. The area betweenwaits to be discovered, evaluated, and enhanced.Table 1: Total Budget of the Engineering Works of the ConstructedPhase according to the prices established by the Greek Ministry of

Construction, Secretary General (2003).

Excavationin foundationsoil of any kind

Unreinforced cleaning concrete C12/16

Reinforcedconcrete class C25/30

Iron Bars for Reinforcedconcrete

Injected vertical piles F60

Reinforcediron for injected piles

Micro-piles 25mm

TOTAL BUDGET OF ENGINEERINGWORKS

13.455,15 €

3.863,52 € 85.529,28 €

74.132,00 €

80.637,52 €

9.055,20 € 124.000,00€

390.672,67 €

3 Theoretical Framework, a Comparative Study

3.1 The Stairs vs. the Route

St Nicholas staircase numbers 193 steps and is situated on the axis of St Nicholas Street which leadsto the harbor in its main dock. Each step is approximately 32 centimeters wide and 17-18 centimeters high. The stairs are grouped in 12 segments of 16 steps each, which makes them rather arduous to climb, though less than 95 meters in length. They were constructed by the City Hall in the

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mid 1930s3 on St Nicholas church’s land. St Nicholas church is situated at the base of the stairs and lacksan open public space for its congregation and events. The staircase is straight and linear with a fixed width that extends to adjacent green slopes and flat entrances to the nearby houses and estates. The same pattern is repeated monotonously and rhythmically as one climbs or descends the stairs. It takes a healthy fairly fit individual about 3-5 minutes to descend them and nearly 5-7 to climb them. Though now in derelict condition, the steps being corroded and in need of renovation despite the anti-slip metal bars that serve as a protection for the passer-by, they still remain grandiose and theatrical. They are an object on the ground, firm pre-ordered autonomous and inflexible, and still preserving their high visual power and all their qualities as a spectacle.

St George’s or Virgin Mary’s Presentation route occupies the space created by the demolition of the expropriated buildings on the hill slope. It follows the zigzag line of the rear boundaries of pre-existingproperties and incorporates the remaining retaining walls from their building ruins or yards, structured with different materials, usually masonry or bricks. The route is composed of segmented stairs, ramps, and plateaus/ terraces with variable width and length. Depending on which route one chooses to follow the same healthy and fairly fit individual going up and down the stairs can climb the route in about 12-15 minutes and descend it in about 10-13. The constructedproject attempts to achieve the minimum architectural intervention possible (since the engineering works canhardly be characterized as minimal) and preserve all construction traces from the variable historic periodsfound in situ (roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, French,

3 Mayor Vassilios Roufos and the City Council approved thefinancing for the construction of the stairs on 20.11.1934 (Triantafillou K., 1995).

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Venetian, classical and neo-classical) that also differ in structure and style. Hence the appearance ofdiverse views and material stacking is now exposed as the city’s New Monuments, incorporated in the new structure, retaining each layer’s identity and cultural importance. The project follows the sequence of the remaining wall and floor traces in time and space exposing their structural technology without embellishment. The low-cost materials used and the unexpected plateaus/ terraces created, combined with the low visibility of the route, encourage events in space. The route is used not only by homeless and immigrants, but also by the congregation of the VirginMary’s Presentation church and the inhabitants as welland they all have left their unexpected marks in space. Though the city shows its poverty and decay along the route, the houses being neglected and the gardens abandoned, the passer-by grasps a sense of fluidity of space bound to the site as a field condition.

3.2 A Comparative Relation

One could regard the old and the new structure, stairs and route, as two environments that interact and define their respective surface qualities. The mutual interference is materialized with the connections, perceptual and realized. The connected system is defined in relation to other objects, namelythe existing grid of buildings, in such a way that it promotes movement through the interstitial space. The production of space is achieved through the activationof circulation in the few connecting paths. This system can be considered as fluid, a system of lines that actualizes exist tensions between old and new buildings and structures. Its multiplicity cannot be analyzed to individual parts, because they all work together to provide the experience to the user. The high number and density of interacting elements leads

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to complex relations, and perhaps this generated complexity is more than the project could handle.

The stairs are both singular and multiple, repetitive and self-similar, based on the individuality of their identity. Mobility is their inherent property. They have a formal clarity as autonomous self-similar objects; their shape is internally regulated and depends on the contextual constraints or containment, adjusting to the local conditions. The route, on the other hand, is based on flows, formed by multiplicities and has no discrete geometry. The above description of the route fits the field theory of Stan Allen “…a field condition would be any formal or spatial matrix capable of unifying diverse elements while respecting the identity of each” (Allen S., 1997). The attention is drawn away from the object of the stairs towards the field of theroute. The route absorbs local conditions and connections. The interstitial space becomes more important than the form of the route itself. Laid out in a non-hierarchical manner it forms continuous interstitial spaces whose shapes are highly fluid. Such non-architecture signifies a system of events in which space and time are simultaneously present as open, as multiple non-reductive categories and as organizers of this opening and multiplicity. It is driven not by a desire to impose a hierarchy and orderbut by a composition of forces.

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4 The Community of Events

The events and the users have left their marks in space. Our team welcomes their interaction with the area of the slope of the hill and regards it as benefical for research as traces that mark an unintended meeting place, in reference to the exhibition Stay in Touch – Public Architecture in the Nordic Context in the Nordic Pavilion 2010 of the 12th International Architectural Exhibition LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA. In the castle hill slope we have found evidence of three types of usage in space that reflect the complex and dynamic behaviors of architecture’s users locally established at the area: abandoned dwelling structures(mattress, tent remains) by homeless or immigrants, acquisitive vandalism remains around and in the churchyard and numerous graffiti, both political- anarchist and artistic. The stairs have been used in 2006-74 as cinema/ theater and spectacle terrace for projections held by the cinema club of the city in association with the city hall. Nowadays their organized use as a public space has been abolished, though it was favorably welcomed by citizens and inhabitants and it really enhanced the notion of the stairs as a spectacle through inversion.

Local artists and activists have been attracted by the surfaces of the many retaining walls situated on the stairs and the route to express their work and political mottos with graffiti. We consider these graffiti as events performed in situ by groups of users that comprehend the constructed environment as asequence of events. These groups have exercised a formal control over the various materials of the vertical surfaces; they have reformed the conditions within which every material is deployed and then

4 Patras was Cultural Capital of Europe amongst other cities in 2006.

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redirected its flows. It somehow becomes possible to imagine an architecture that can respond sensitively to local differences and tensions while maintaining its overall stability and coherence.

4.1 Discussions

Our team tries to present as many community aspectsfor the area and its habituation as possible through emergent community research via websites, blogs and interviews.

Citizens and inhabitants of the area, who are the everyday passers-by of the hill slope, have repeatedlyprotested to the City Hall, sending letters to the local press5 and the city council, about the derelict condition of the staircase and the route’s upper part (Virgin Mary’s Presentation Street) as it climbs the slope of the hill. They request their restoration and rehabilitation. Some groups of inhabitants also request the installation of a small-scale cable railway on the staircases. The City Hall seems to ignore their demands so far.

It is difficult to discuss the area of the hill andignore the Church of Patras, St Nicholas church and its chapel Virgin Mary’s Presentation church. Their congregation and clergymen somehow regard the area as their legal ownership, as they have never been compensated for its original expropriation back in the1930s. There seems to be a conflict of interest there as St Nicholas church requests its money back and the city organizations try to expropriate its remaining yard. Greek justice may have to give the answer to therights and the money exchange of the area of the hill.The two churches attract a considerable congregation from the area and beyond and the ceremonies held in the temples may also be considered as space activatorsand event attractors.

5 Peloponnesus newspaper, 03.06.2010

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The route and the stairs are used by the populationof the Primary-, Art- and Nursery- Schools that are situated near or on the hill, though not officially part of it. The primary school headmistress expressed the schools view that the grade of the slope is considered dangerous for the school’s excursions to the castle area and a different way up the hill is chosen. However, many boy- and girl-scout organizations use the hill for small scale environmental and historical discovering excursions during the weekends.

Patras Ecologists regard certain paths of the hill as ideal bicycle routes and believe that the city should define, repair, treat the presently closed or impassable parts of the slope and encourage bicycle circulation in them. The City Hall however remains inactive and attributes its inability to continue the rehabilitation of the whole Upper city hill area to the lack of funding and the Greek economic crisis. TheUniversity of Patras and the Department Of Architecture, with Professor Kouros P. as the main researcher of interstitial spaces, regards the area ofthe hill as a site to host architectural performances and events.

5 Concluding Remarks

The conducted research provides an opportunity to critically evaluate current public space discourse andto reconsider current understandings of the urban potential and design practices. It enables us to gain insights into the architectural public space design process, the construction praxis, the design outcome, and how the existing historical environment affects them. The story does not end here of course, it just begins. In the next few months, we will try to presentour research to the Mayor and the City Hall and

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encourage a second phase of an environmental rehabilitation of the area of the hill.

The study area is defined by contradictory and transitional spatial relations and qualities. The actsof demolition and the effects of degradation on the buildings in the area expose private space and nearly collapse the boundary of public space (Foster H., Krauss R., Bois Y. -A & Buchloh B., 2004). The thresholds of entrances, yards and small gardens or left-over void lots form transitions from public to semi-public and private space. Abandoned gardens offera potential for reuse and adaptation in ways limited only by the lots themselves, and the means and imagination of the occupier. These spaces have turned wildly in nature. Some have become semi-agrarian semi-urban refuge of the ‘homeless’. They all still remain urban lots to be potentially used as urban gardens andenvironmental activators by visitors and inhabitants.

The area of the slope of the Castle Hill in Patras is a place for pedestrians to walk. In the Practice of Everyday Life De Certeau speaks about ‘the spatial language’ of walking(…), which rather than a simple movement, represents ‘a way of being in the world’ (DeCerteau M., 1984). For De Certeau, the rhetoric of walking is made of a series of tours and detours, the style figures that constitute the pedestrian discourse: walking is ‘the art of touring’ (De CerteauM., 1984), as the walking body moves in search of a familiar thing in the city. Hopefully the stairs, route and connecting paths on the hill will proclaim and reclaim their role as a familiar tour for the pedestrian walker in the constructed environment.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the engineering team of the constructed project: architects V. Farmaki, M. Kourbana, late V. Panopoulos, M. Tzavala & D.

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Zisimopoulos, civil engineers T. & G. Koumoulos and the Municipal Technical Services of Patras.

References

Allen S. (1997). From Object to Field in Architectural Design, Volume 67, No 5/6, May-June 1997, p. 24

Bois Y.-A. Krauss R., (1997). Threshole in Formless: A User’sGuide to Entropy, October, Vol. 78, (Autumn, 1996), The MIT Press, pp. 60-61

De Certeau M. (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley:University of California Press, p. 97 & p. 103.

Foster H., Krauss R., Bois Y-A. & Buchloh B. (2004). Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism and Postmodernism, London: Thames & Hudson’s, p. 508 & p. 638.

Georgopoulou-Verra M. (2000). The Castle of Patras, Athens:Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Funds’ Editions, pp. 6-7

National Statistical Service of Greece (2003). Actual Population of Greece by Prefectures, Municipalities, Communities, Urban Apartments, Villages, Census 2001, Athens

Rozos D., Koukis G. & Sabatakakis N. (2006). Large-scale engineering geological map of the Patras city wider area, Greecein IAEG2006 Paper number 241, pp. 4-11, from www.iaeg.info/iaeg2006/start.htm.

Triantafillou K. (1995). Historic Dictionary of Patras: History ofthe City and Prefecture of Patras, Patras: Kouli P. Printery, pp. 130-3, pp. 582-3, p. 1024

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Online References

www.field-journal.org, vol.1 (1) The Space of Subculture in the City www.oikipa.gr www.i-m-patron.gr/dioikhsis_enories.htmlsynodoiporia.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post_6540.htmlc-m-c.blogspot.com/patrablog.blogspot.com/2010/06/tleferik.htmlwww.arkitekturmuseet.se/english/press_information/La

%20Biennale%20di%20Venezia/Nordic_Pavilion_2010-09-02_Presskit.pdf

www.atworkwith.com/www.bing.com/mapswww.statistics.gr (2007-2009)

Image 1: The constructed engineering works.

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Image 2: St Nicholas staircase.

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Image 3: The castle hill slope from the west(http://www.bing.com/maps).

Image 4: The castle hill slope from the south(http://www.bing.com/maps).

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