THOLOS "Virtual Theater" - [Athens]

Tholos is a hemispherical "virtual reality" theater in the installations of "Hellenic Cosmos", the thematic park of IME (Ίδρυμα Μείζωνος Ελληνισμού - Foundation of the Hellenic World).

It has 132 seats and a total surface of 2.300 sq.m. , the construction works lasted for 3 years and it will fully operate from 2007.

The spectators can walk in the ancient "Agora", the street of "Panathinaia", the temple of Hphaistos and many other ancient monuments.

12 different projectors are used and 42 CPU's with 48GB of memory.

The spectator can choose in which direction to move using stereoscopic glasses and a navigation system next to his seat.

The president of the Hellenic Democracy inaugurated the new building (4.Dec.2006).
The responsible architect is George Andreadis.

sources:
http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngEntityID=760279
http://www.tholos254.gr/gr/index.html
http://www.adis.gr

Museum of the Hellenic World - [Athens]

The design proposal focuses on the concept of a museum of history - not original historical exhibits. The design principle is based on the spatio-psychoanalytic concept of lack (deeply routed in Greek culture) as a critique against the notions of 'collection'/ 'acquisition'. Both as sense of loss of original pieces as well as creative spatial process, lack, led to the formulation of a new museological approach integrating exhibition and builiding into one. Spatiality is conceived, psychoanalytically, as the mode of history, and highlighted both as the major diachronic documentation of Greek civilisation (recurring, homeomorphing, collocating) and the main concept of the building: a spatial monument as opposed to a symbolic memorial.

The proposed continuous strip, self-evolving across the building, produces homeomorphic curved schemes in three distinct, spatial gestures/installations: a) the amphitheatre introducing Classical Antiquity, b) the dome introducing Byzantium, c) the sheltering cell introducing Modern times (17th - early 20th century), covering the overall museum space. Accordingly, three distinct lighting treatments are proposed: a) bright daylight, small sharp shadows, b) indirect, ambient, no shadows, c) cinematic side-lighting, long shadows. Yet, the strip surface employs a gradient synthesis of materials and construction techniques - varying from: a) tectonic, marble, stone, b) cast material, c) timber, glass and metal structures. Client: Foundation of Hellenic World, Athens. Total exhibition space: 6000 sq.m

The building includes an exhibition area, and a Virtual Reality Cave (370 sq.m). It is located on Piraeus Street. It also includes 3250 sq. m of parking space, auxiliary spaces of 1550 sq.m and and visitor's service space of 1000 sq.m


Source:
http://www.anamorphosis-architects.com/projects/ime/project_IME.html