ATHENS - ILISSION GROVE
VARLAMIS AND THE WORLD OF CHILDREN
In 1989, with the positive suggestion of the Deputy Mayor for Culture Stavros Xarhakos, the Mayor of Athens Miltiadis Evert assigned Warlamis the design of the Ilision Park. Warlamis proposed the creation of an original space for children called THE MUSEUM OF CHILDREN’S IMAGINATION OF ATHENS.
The plans were enthusiastically received by the entire municipal council of the city of Athens. In a very short time, a first small part of the design of the space was carried out.
The philosophy of the project was based on Warlamis’ theory of space, the well-known SPACE OPERA, according to which space should encourage the child to make a movement that will allow him to better understand it as a whole. The project provided for special areas for children’s entertainment and education and had a multifaceted design that combined the historical tradition of Athens with the modern symbols of postmodern architecture.
The resignation of Miltiadis Evert from the mayorship also led to the cancellation of the entire project.
he himself writes..
…The study of the complementary design of the Ilisia Park, and its transformation into a museum space for the children of Athens, has as its starting point the psychosocial structure of the city and the historical ensemble of Athens, with the aim of establishing and creating a space for the production of the future in a diachronic depth. The city is not a static organism, but a mega-structure that is constantly changing. New and alternative urban planning ideas and functions are difficult to understand and "cooperate" with the system of passive - static perception of the city. The current state production to which I am referring uses for every action and especially in the building sector, a strategy characterized by temporal depth and multi-level activity. Thus, for the formation of the Ilisia Park and its transformation into a museum space for children, I use a complex artistic and aesthetic complex, to achieve a new atmosphere of space. In this new atmosphere, my direction has a psychosocial temperament and therapeutic tendency, because it dynamically confronts the lack of spaces for children in the city, and avoids responding with "frivolous" solutions (the well-known industrial playground toys), which do not respond either to the needs or to the intellectual abilities of the child. The conception and design of the museum space refer to solutions with an immediate, dynamic, but also future character. Solutions that ensure the prospect of a deep relationship between the child and the city within the space of imagination, within the space of art...
what they said…
