The tallest green high-rise in the Mediterranean

Riviera Tower

Athens, Greece

It has been more than 2,000 years since Greece could boast its own Colossus. But a new tower to be built in the Agios Kosmas Marina area in Athens will be the tallest building in the country and the tallest green beachfront high-rise building in the whole of the Mediterranean.

Riviera Tower, designed by architects Foster + Partners, will be the first landmark to take shape at The Ellinikon urban development project, an ambitious regeneration scheme for the Greek capital’s former airport site. The €8bn masterplan includes the creation of a world-class Metropolitan Park covering an area of 2,000,000 m², as well as extensive enhancement of the coastal front.

This emphasis on green regeneration will be showcased in the Riviera Tower, which features distinctive ‘hanging gardens’, with dominant green spaces and water features, natural light and unobstructed sea views. Buro Happold is working alongside Foster + Partners on the project, across a broad range of engineering disciplines, ensuring the building’s green design approach translates into its credentials as a landmark building for sustainability-focused living.

Riviera Tower will be Greece’s tallest building at 200m above sea level.

The tower will house 180 apartments on 50 floors.

The building will be replete with green spaces and water features. Sustainability considerations run throughout the design, which aspires to LEED Gold accreditation.

The tower has been carefully designed to withstand the region’s seismic activity, and will be a benchmark for fire safety in the region.

Challenge

But as the original Colossus of Rhodes eventually fell foul of an earthquake in 226BC, our experts must pay careful consideration to the seismic resilience of the 200m tower. This will be Greece’s first high-rise building in excess of 100m.

The planning laws of Athens dictate that nothing can be allowed to over-shadow the city’s historic Acropolis. As 200 metres is the maximum height permissible, Riviera Tower will never be superseded as the capital’s tallest building.

The tower will house 180 apartments on 50 floors. In a complex piece of engineering, the design connects what is effectively two towers with a spine composed of high-rise gardens and infinity swimming pools alternating on each of the floors.

On completion – within the next five years – it will be one of six tall buildings to be developed at The Ellinikon. The key characteristic of the design approach is the creation of a building with a slim silhouette, which blends with the natural environment. The vision is for the green and water elements to enhance the building’s bioclimatic nature, while also playing a key role in the emotional wellbeing of residents.

Solution

Seismic resilience has been worked into every element of the structure, with Buro Happold’s experts using the latest digital modelling technology.

The structural design will follow international standards to achieve a highly efficient, robust and state-of-art building that meets both the performance requirements related to seismic design, whilst respecting the need for the building to play a part in the sustainable strategy of the project through clever use of materials that lower its embodied carbon footprint.

The highly energy efficient building, designed to meet the client’s ambition of achieving LEED Gold accreditation, will be 30% more energy efficient than the average new build construction in the country.

Sustainability has been factored into the irrigation of the structure’s many green spaces, with a system designed to recycle much of the water used to hydrate the building’s many plants. This will reduce the irrigation water demand by at least 50%. The use of drought hardy native species will also further reduce irrigation demands.

Low carbon emission materials will be used to reduce the Life Cycle Impact of the building by a minimum of 10%. We are focusing on the reduction of the urban heat island effect by using low emissivity reflective material and by the omission of large surface parking areas. Residents will park vehicles in an underground garage fitted with an electric vehicle charging point for each apartment.

Full SMART home controls will also support residents to control their own carbon footprint.

Value

The building’s landmark biophilic design is one of the key elements of the focus on the ongoing wellbeing of residents, which also includes enhanced access to daylight and air quality, while maintaining a connection to outdoor living and uninterrupted views of the natural environment from every apartment.

The spine of green spaces running up the entire height of the building will also help to maintain airflow around the apartments, creating a cooling microclimate through the building.

Riviera Tower will provide the benchmark for seismic and fire safety design in the region. The landmark building will create a safe and enriching environment for residents, while giving them all the infrastructure needed to lead flourishing low carbon lives in this stunning setting.