Megaron Mousikis Athinon – Opera House
2001In 2002 Megaron Mousikis Athinon was the largest Concert Hall in Athens and was in the process of being extended further by a vast extension, including underground opera house, conference center, library and so on. Christopher Alexander was approached by the president of OMMA to design the marble floors of the new extension. It was estimated that 8,000 m2 of multicolored marble floors had to be produced and installed in a limited amount of time.
The design of the floors was worked out in real size, making paper mock-ups on the floor of the C.E.S. warehouse, trying to be as precise as possible on the size and color of each piece of marble to be used. The production for the thousands of marble pieces required was to be done by using computer-controlled water jet cutters, which could cut the pieces of the floor at reasonable cost and in a reasonable time.
Contents
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Colored glass panels for the curved vaulted ceiling of the concourse areas
2001
Fabrication of experimental glass panels, for a ceiling 25 meters by 50 meters, made directly by a computer-model mechanical fabrication technique from a hand-drawn sketch, then transferred to Photoshop for further processing.
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Multi-colored marble floors, consisting of various sizes and different color marble pieces in geometric and ornamental patterns
2001
Prefabrication of marble floors for the concourse areas of about 8.000 m2, in sections of about two feet by four feet, assembled on a fiberglass matt, with the marble pieces being glued with epoxy to the mat. Individual pieces were ...
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Photographs of project models
01/01/2001
Three general views of the fully developed and colored model of the Central Concourse interior, and one more focusing on one of its corners with a stair.
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Photographs of project models
01/01/2001
Four overviews of the fully developed and colored model of the East Concourse interior, and one more of its mezzanine level.
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Photographs of project models
01/01/2001
Three overviews of the fully developed and colored model of the South Concourse interior, and two more focusing on its entrance area and its mezzanine level.
SEE ALL Photographs
References
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Multi-colored marble floors; mock-up of marble tile
01/01/2001
A small piece of a floor in black, white and green marble; a test tile, intended for the Music Library floor, forming the geometric floor pattern, a mosaic of one hundred pieces, cut using a precision water jet cutter.
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Multi-colored marble floors; paper mock-up of a floor pattern
01/01/2001
Three large sheets of paper, CAD-printed mock-ups of the library floor design, all with the same geometric pattern, but with variations of black and white pattern arrangements; one having paste-up parts and one, some red and blue color tested.
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Multi-colored marble floors; paper mock-up of a floor pattern
01/01/2001
Four sheets of a full-scale free-form floor pattern with blue and white wavy lines and three large, fish-shaped cut-out patterns, overlaid on them. .
SEE ALL Models & Mock-ups
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Music Library marble floor - Photographs of mock-up
01/01/2001
One color photograph of the marble tile mock-up, made to size out of more than 100 white and green pieces of Greek marble; two more black and white photographs .
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Music Library marble floor - Photographs of mock-up
01/01/2001
Two photographs of the paper mock-ups made to size and thested on the ground, before finalizing the marble tile mock-up, depicting two stages of its development.
-
Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Music Library marble floor - Photographs of mock-up
01/01/2001
Photograph of an early paper mock-up for the Music Library marble floor, made to size and tested on the ground.
SEE ALL Photographs