walking towards the village of Kallio. A Topology of Coexistence (short version)

walking towards the village of Kallio

a topology of coexistence

archeology

landscape architecture 2019-2020

walking towards the village of Kallio

a topology of coexistence master thesis project supervisor professors: Zissis Kotionis, Aspasia Kouzoupi The village of Kallio and the artificial lake of Mornos, constitute the foundation of this thesis’ subject. The topos in which these coexist, is being approached in the context of an aquatic ecosystem with this meaning, taking into consideration its needs, its dynamic elements and the changes which these bring into the landscape, within time. The village Kallio, inside the reservoir’s waters, is being deconstructed on its own natural pace, it is part of the lakebed’s morphology and it indicates the anthropogenic character of the landscape. While studying the place, effort was made on reading the elements of the landscape - those sediments that form narrations - which tell the story of what happened but also of what is happening now, in this changing field. The practices that are proposed for the supporting of the aquatic biotic and abiotic world, in combination with offering a path to the visitor of the lake, are attempting to develop symbiotic relations, promote a beginning of coexistence through the design, and maybe a dialogue, between human and non-human organisms in the area.

anthropocene ecology

dynamic landscape study

theoretic basis / research

The term of Anthropocene was first used in 2000, to propose that the activities of the man had been of such kind and magnitude, as to merit the use of a new geological term, for a period in which human is appearing to be the most important factor in its forming. Based on this term and realisation, the approach of the whole project is questioning wether it is now possible to eventually revise our role and to learn to co-live and co-make the planet, with the rest of spieces. Natureculture expresses this composition of nature and civilisation, which is indivisible, through environmental relations molded as much biophysically as well as socially. This entity, encourages the invention of new relationships with the environment and the rest of living species, with whom we are connected through tight evolution bonds but still their future we affect, mostly negatively. The landscapes of today, are to a large extent, anthropogenic. In a landscape, consecutive additions or transformations can be performed and they can to a degree, be getting absorbed. The passing of time is in many ways imprinted on the landscape; it becomes apparent, through the composition of plants, water soil and rocks, betraying all these that took place on the landscape.

The Lake of Mornos, consists as well an anthropoNassir Mutfi, Multispieces Cat’s Cradle, 2011 genic landscape, and the history of its greater era, articulates in different time levels. The construction of a water dam blocking the waters of the river, in the formerly Mornos Plain, emerged as the definite solution to the long lasting problem of Athens’ water supply. The collateral damage of this decision, was the sinking of the village of Kallio, which was placed in the heart of the plain. While starting, however, the study of the area for the dam, in the beginning of 60s, the until then uknown history of the place, came to light, with the discovery of an ancient city right next to Kallio, the discovery of the ancient Kallipolis. Resident of the village confessions that he remembers his mother, as she was ploughing, to find pieces of vases or other broken objects, but while completely ignoring their importance, just throwing them aside to continue her job. Kallipolis had been plundered and burnt down, then though, got rebuilt and flourished once more, until it would get burnt again and eventually completely forgotten. All the residents of Kallio were voluntarily helping with the excavations, in order to save as much findings as possible, before the dam would fill. With the first rains of September ’79, the waters rose so much that the remains of the ancient city, as well as the houses of the village, would soon be drawn.

Kallio and the ancient Kallipolis

Kallio was initially inhabited by Slavs around the 10th century and about the 15th, it passed to the hands of Turks, which soon had as a result its abandonment. It reshaped in 1915. Its people, first heard about the dam in 1965. The elder ones used to state that they would rather jump into the lake than leave their land. The displacement of the population of Kallio, was a gradual event, materially realised by the water that filled the plain. Today, and after the creation of the lake, the whole region is in degradation, especially due to the weakening of its financial activity. The last residents left the village in Janu-

archiving / tracking /mapping ary of 1980, seeing the waters coming in their yards. Few years later, they decided to come back, reshaping their small village in the top of the hill, west of the old one. Today, the only complaint they confess, is not for their sacrifice, but for the fact that very few know about their village. * a) Kallipolis

b) Kallipolis+Kallio

At first, I focused into the mapping of Kallio, in an effort to understand better the landscape itself, when the water that rises and falls, changes completely its dimension. I started then a process of archiving, collecting pictures from the internet and social media and from books of the Kallio’s association, that would help me create a general picture of the old village. At the beginning, I could identify barely two houses by its remains. Then, by comparing different shots, and by spotting elements on them, like a fence, a mound, a tree, I started composing the settlement in a 3d model.

The ruins, these remains, I had the intention of first recreating them in 3d so that then, I could examine the possibility of designing around them or inside them.

While designing them though, through pictures of different years, I started noticing their decay during time. For example, a two level house appearing in a picture of ’91, would not exist anymore c) Kallipolis+Kallio+New or would not be two-leveled anymore, in a picture of 2008, that would re-appear.

The same of course would be, for the lake’s bankings. The topographic map I had found, was of the before-lake form of the ground. Its continuous erosion and deterioration by the water movement, had changed it completely. I started realising that what I was designing in a 3d model, was more of a screenshot of a landscape, because itself is so dynamic, so transformative.

dynamic landscape

When the level of the reservoir’s waters is low, the houses emerge from the waters, betraying a piece of the history of the topos.

Apart though from the village, which consists its lake bed, or the ancient city that is located below that, the living and non-living components of the ecosystem, its waters and mountains, the fauna and flora of them, tell aslo a story about what happened but also about what happens there [...] The wider area of Mornos, is at the moment facing a great number of environmental problems.

designing the path

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The path that is designed, is being presented through a general map that showes the whole gesture, and then, through top plans, which zoom-in 6 different parts of it, through sections vertical the river flow, through three general facades of the landscape and lastly, through greater zoom-ins as perspective collages.

facades’ details

top plans of the path in summer (top) and fall (bottom) period.

facades & top plans

close-ups

The design gesture, takes place in that part of the lake which is in an in-between situation, there where the water changes take place. It is that dry infertile zone, that separates the green and the blue of the landscape; the plants and the lake.

A zone of transformation or a beige ribbon that seems to highlight the environmental problems of the area.

After the research on the problems that the area faces - to name a few; erosion, intense rockfalls which end up inside the lake and reduce its capacity, inability of fish to reproduce due to the unstable situations of the waters and the lack of a friendly shore - I focused on researching ways and techniques that could help on supporting the lake environment, and which I could embody in the design proposal. The path that is being composed, I chose it to be there first for the needs of the lake and then for the human-visitor.

The gesture is composed by a vocabulary of structures and materials(rip-raps, metal perforated cor-ten panels and pillars, gabion baskets, clay and a variety of site-specific plants), and it is articulated as a path, following the water flow, from the point that the river enters the reservoir, till the village Kallio well the waters are steadier and deeper. The path can also be conceived as a set of smaller paths, as many parts of it are available (above water) only during some periods of the year. For this reason the path also consists of a number of vertical, towards the river, paths, that connect the main street with the river and allow the exit of the riverside path. Therefore, depending on the season, the path transforms to 3,4 or 5 smaller paths, acquiring itself the characteristic of temporality and seasonality. By extinguishing the different characteristics in the different parts of the banks, each solution that is proposed, deals with different needs.

Mentioning only epigrammatically, some of the path’s elements, below the platform on the image (left) there are metal grids on which are tied elements -recycled from the region- like dry branches and reeds, which can

Kallio

species, where they can hide, or inhabit or leave their eggs. Another techinque used, is placing masses of rocks and gabions close to the shore, that will hold some of the (usually fertile) soil and rocks, which from the mountains into the lake, and through time, they will maybe contain a new layer of soil in which plant can grow or fish can breed. Plantation is also used very carefully, according to the water-period of the banks, as a designing tool and and again with the parameter of linear time. Regarding the ending of the

path, in the place of Kallio, there are three stone paths which imitate the paths that pre-existed in the village and they all end up in the village’s square. Only in extreme case, the square will ever be out of the water, so the paths have a rather memorial character. Additionally, it is proposed that plain stone ruins are being taken out of the lake and re-used in order to compose the path itself - so in a way the whole path could be seen as a memorial - leading to the village of which the stones is partially composed.

epilogue

In a lake of which the lakebed’s morphology is consisted of buildings, inside its soil there are remains of an ancient city and eventually the ecosystem of the waters that were imposed, is not balanced, maybe a mindset of human’s retreat, to a degree, is more insightful; and let it be that Kallio is now handed in the forces and rhythms of the lake’s waters and let it be that these, will complete the landscape, in their own defined time. In the water of Mornos Lake, we see human structures returning and giving in to something of which in reality, they were never different from, the nature. The nature, from which human decided to be estranged and which is mainly interested in restraining or controlling. The architect, often enough, builds with the delusion of timelessness and the ambition of the structure’s permanence. Eventually though, the remains of the past, either that is an ancient city or a newer, but not anymore existent, settlement, remind us the limits of a building. They show us that in reality, a building is being deconstructed already by the moment it starts being constructed; and its traces, are part of the life of the building. And even more importantly, that the building designed, might

change use. The passage of time, might oblige it to host scenarios which human had not envisioned. The houses of the old Kallio, are not empty, but of human presence. They are full of water. In their walls, one can find plethora of seashells and algae. And every day they can host or just get crossed by dozens of fish. They do not need human re-habitation cause they already have found other users.

Regarding the path, the exact result of the constructions could not be predicted, as dynamic factors of climate, water and soil are involved, and which in their on ways they will adjust in the interventions; in this way, design is based in a great degree, in the parameter of time and more specifically, in the unique and special time of the dynamic landscape. [...] A design that could eventually narrate new symbiotic stories, could maybe simply begin, with the reduction of our distance from the ecosystem, in which we are parts of, because today, more than ever before, the world we inhabit is eventually the world which we ourselves have formed and the responsibility of the landscapes yet to come, is ours, maybe more than ever.