National Garden Labyrinth
- by landnarch
or Choose by Category

National Garden Labyrinth
Place: National Garden of Athens, Greece
Time: 2010
Status: part of the research program entitled “Research Program for the Upgrade of the National Garden of Athens”.
Contracting Authority: Athens Prefecture, Project Recipient: N.T.U.A.
Main Researcher of the Research Program: : Konstantinos Moraitis, Professor, N.T.U.A, Scientific Director: K.Moutzouris
The objective of the research program was to propose strategies towards an upgrade and consequent rehabilitation of the National Garden of Athens.
The Labyrinth
According to Bareaud’s original layout of the National Garden of Athens, two labyrinths seem to have been constructed, one central to the National Garden, while the second one at its sout part. Traces from the central one have been lost, whereas the small hill created to host the southern labyrinth exists until today.
Originally designed as a series of concentric cycles which constitute the pathways and the vegetation areas, resides still at the same spot, but its original character has been lost. The original vegetation has been originally planned as a whole made of its parts- dwarf pine trees which used to make up the labyrinth ‘walls’. Today, since the trees have been replaced with pine trees reaching in average 30 meters in height, their relation to the ground has been lost and cannot function as constituting elements of the labyrinth’s ‘green walls’.
Bareaud's plan for the NG Labyrinth
The Labyrinth at its current state
The labyrinth
A sculpted landscape is proposed.
The qualities of the existing land formations are reinforced, in order for the original playful qualities of the gaze to be reestablished.
The proposal involves a game of strict, absolute shapes in plan and smooth transitions in volume.