Souda Port Passenger Terminal

The proposal for Chania’s Port terminal in Souda borrows its form from a design hybrid. We attempted to connect morphologically the Venetian fortifications (prevalent in many parts of the Cretan coastline) and the concrete dolos breakwaters, used in ports for protection against the erosive force of waves. Based on the iconic morphology of both elements, the design logic of the new structure reinterprets them into a new amalgam consisting of independent monolithic concrete volumes that function as a whole on the inside. In terms of its functional programming the passenger terminal is divided in two levels, treating the ground floor as a semi-open market and the upper floor as a ship deck. The ground floor can be described as an extensive pilotis with an open inner atrium, facilitating the uses related to the functionality of a port terminal. The upper floor is conceived in such way that the view to the sea through slight tweaks of a sequence of semi open spaces.