Ellinikon Metropolitan Park
with Sasaki
When completed, this redevelopment of a former airport will be the largest urban park in Europe and an exemplar of sustainable landscape design. Atelier Ten is ensuring the project meets its ambitious net zero energy and carbon neutrality goals while designing a landscape that provides a comfortable visual environment that can be enjoyed day or night.
Atelier Ten provided whole project carbon analysis to go beyond the industry standards for operational and embodied carbon. We looked at all operational energy usage from site lighting provided by Atelier Ten, pumping energy for irrigation, water fountains and restrooms and design integrate on-site PVs to set a path to Net Zero operational energy. As a result of the landscape sequestration, it will take 35 years to achieve net carbon neutrality.
With extreme seasonal temperatures, outdoor comfort is vital to creating a landscape that can be enjoyed year-round. Atelier Ten provided a heat mitigation study and found that incorporating adequate shading, evapotranspiration from plantings and more reflective paving greatly increased outdoor comfort. The design strives to include 100% native and adaptive vegetation to maintain the existing ecosystem, while incorporating shading, stormwater runoff, and other integrative landscape measures to increase landscape performance. Additionally, Atelier Ten is advising on resiliency strategies including setbacks, structural protection, and other integrative landscape measures to adapt to expected sea level rise and possible storm flooding.
Atelier Ten’s approach to lighting is influenced by the natural surroundings and the parks accessibility during all times of the day and night. To create an active and energetic night scene, layers of light encourage people to linger. Atelier Ten focused on the distribution of light and uniform lighting to create a more active and varied visual environment. The lighting team included life cycle information for the light fixtures to increase the accuracy of our LCA analysis and provide a more holistic view of the carbon picture.