Renzo Piano selects and announces the winners of the competition to design the Visitor Center for the construction site of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) announced today the results of the National Architectural Competition for the design of the Visitor Center, which will open in the summer of 2013 at the construction site of the SNFCC. The winning design was selected by Renzo Piano, the SNFCC’s architect, from among the competition’s top 10 shortlisted proposals. The competition, which was announced in January, was open to all undergraduate students of architecture enrolled at the Faculties of Architecture and corresponding Departments in Greek Polytechnics and Universities.

The winning entry was put forward by the student team consisting of Agis-Panagiotis Mourelatos (Faculty of Architecture, University of Patra) and Spyridon Giotakis (Faculty of Architecture-Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens). The team’s proposal will be implemented immediately by the SNFCC.

Overall, six (6) architectural proposals, out of a total of 93 entries submitted by students attending Architectural Schools in Greece, were selected to receive awards.

The construction of the Visitor Center of the SNFCC construction site is expected to commence immediately, with a view of welcoming its first visitors in July 2013. The Visitor Center will remain in operation until the scheduled completion of the SNFCC, and will have multiple functions. It will provide visitors with the opportunity to see the construction site and learn more about the SNFCC, while also serving as a venue for exhibitions and other events, accessible to the wider public.

The competition was funded and organized by the SNFCC AE, as part of its effort to provide comprehensive information and raise public awareness on the Cultural Center currently under construction.

In a live video conference, the SNFCC’s architect, Renzo Piano, who was instrumental in the completion of the competition procedure, announced the winners of three (3) prizes and three (3) honorable mentions.

In addition, particular attention was paid to the orientation, position and appearance of the future Visitor Center. Specifically, the structure’s transparency will allow visitors’ direct contact with the construction site and the SNFCC’s construction and development works, thus reinforcing its role as an accessible and user-friendly center.

The winning team will receive a cash award of 18,000 euro.

The remaining winners of the Visitor Center competition are as follows:

The second prize, with a cash award of 13,200 euro, goes to:
Xeni Stombou, Valerian-Antonios Portokalis, Ioannis-Makarios Koufopoulos

The third prize, with a cash award of 8,800 euro, goes to:
Ilias Oikonomakis, Aggelos Siambakoulis

Honorable Mentions, with a cash award of 3,000 euro, go to the following teams:
Alexios-Georgios Tsakalakis-Karkas, Vasileios Haritatos
Anastasios Theodorakakis, Marios Papadakis, Konstantinos Nikolakopoulos
Georgios Papamatthaiakis, Aliki Karanikola, Theodoros Koutros

During his address, George Agouridis, member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors and president of the Board of Directors of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center S.A., focused on the Foundation’s role and the SNFCC’s contribution in the development of Greece, while Yiannis Trohopoulos, General Manager and CEO of the SNFCC, underlined the significant value of the SNFCC for our country, society and new generations, adding: “All 93 of the students’ architectural proposals were imbued with originality, creativity and imagination, a fact that filled us with joy, as the SNFCC has already achieved its aim of serving as a source of inspiration and hope for the country’s new generation”.

Similarly, Dr. Theodore Maravelias, Architectural Engineer, Director of the Technical Department of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and Member of the Board of Directors of the SNFCC S.A., commented: “As a fellow architect, I feel deeply moved and also proud of the very high level of architectural studies in our country, as reflected in the quality of the work of the vast majority of entries. A quality that combines high levels of imagination, originality, sensitivity, technical competency, consistency and maturity in its overall approach.”