ECOnnect

Educational

Crete, Greece

2012

6300m2 / 67813sf

with R.Tzimika & S.Tsiontsi

The approach taken with the ECOnnect proposal was to address the question of whether the building could establish a dialogue with the particular environmental and vernacular features of the local Cretan architectural heritage while responding to the needs of a contemporary educational facility characterized by young students coming from diverse cultures.

In order to respond to this challenge, an environmentally responsive strategy was devised. In it, the incorporation of passive design parameters was to define the process of form finding, the functional relationships between spaces, the optimization of building performance and the visual tectonics of the building.

The scheme features spaces for a Kindergarten, a Primary School & a Secondary School as well as Administration and Common Use/Multipurpose areas. However, the use of archetypal forms of Minoan Architecture, namely “the Main Court” and the “Stoa” (walkway), act as a regulating aspect of the scheme while the use of environmental simulation tools diagrammed the proper size, orientation and fenestration of the resulting spaces.

Thus, the strategies range from the optimization of the classrooms’ orientation (due north-south), the optimization of daylight availability in the classrooms through narrow spaces and light-shelves; the implementation of indirect passive solar heating through preheated sunspaces in winter; and the use of enhanced stack and cross ventilation and multiple-mode optimized shading devices for the warmer months.