codicil

codicil is a temporary cultural structure— an art space—that weaves into a large arterial road in Athens. The proposal for this exhibition area recognizes the lack of cultural institutions in this economically highly evolved neighborhood and adds a footnote to an infrastructure that focuses mainly on consumption. Hence, the art structure is imagined as obstructing the course of traffic and is positioned as a sort of tangible yet almost floating gallery in the middle of a six-lane road—an intervention counteracting the relentless flow of commercial traffic and the lack of public art in the area.

Approaching the busy street, pedestrians encounter a light structure on a traffic island with a shell that takes on the characteristics of the fast-paced surroundings. Its materiality—an envelope of fiberglass and thermoplastic pepcore—allows the art to be contained safely within, while giving the occupants of the vehicles whizzing by on either side of the structure a view. All elements are prefabricated and can be quickly installed without closing the affected road. A pedestrian crossing connects the separated neighborhoods bordering the very busy arterial road and lets the public encounter art installations on already established plots.