Renzo Piano Unveils Green-Roofed Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center for Athens

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/renzo-piano-redevelops-former-michelin-factory-site-into-new-museum/">Renzo Piano</a> recently unveiled plans for a new waterfront cultural center and urban park in Athens. The <a href="http://www.snf.org/snfcc/snfMain_en.html" target="_blank">Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center</a> includes a massive opera and a library that is directly connected to the park by a sloping <a href="http://inhabitat.com/category/green-roof">green roof</a>. Once completed, the privately funded project will be given to the Greek government, which will assume ownership and operations. In addition to providing hundreds of jobs during construction and operation, the cultural center will incorporate several sustainable technologies with the hope of attaining LEED Platinum certification.

The cultural center has been in the works since 2009, but the final plans were only revealed at the end of June.

The SNFCC overlooks the Athens' waterfront and will house a new opera house for the Greek National Opera, in addition to state-of-the-art headquarters for the National Library of Greece.

The cultural center will sit on the site of the 42 acre Stavros Niarchos Park, also designed by Renzo Piano, to provide green and recreational space to the city.

Paying homage to the historic culture and architecture of Athens, Piano has designed the complex as a contemporary Agora.

The top of the complex emerges from a hilltop and cantilevers out over the slope. It is covered with a large green roof that connects directly to the park.

One of the goals of the complex is to achieve LEED Platinum certification, which will make it the first to do so in Greece.

As part of the sustainability plan, the SNFCC features a canal that functions as anti-flooding protection for the site, while recycling water on-site for irrigation.

A roof above the structure provides shade, and a 2.5 acre solar photovoltaic system set atop will generate power for both the library and opera.

Construction is expected to start later this year and will be completed in 2015, when the government takes control of the structure and its operations.

Privately funded, the US$803 million cultural center is expected to be a world-class cultural, educational and recreational destination, and a new urban symbol of 21st century Athens.

Site plan of the cultural center and new urban park.

Location of the cultural center with respect to the waterfront.

The site gently slopes rising up to the cultural center, which looks out over the water.