Takis Gavrilis & Partners Design Group

Takis Gavrilis & Partners Design Group undertook the design for the construction of the North Wing at the Air Force Academy Complex in Dekeleia Airfield. The North Wing forms part of a greater building complex that houses the Command Post, the Classrooms and the Faculty Offices, the Small Amphitheatre, the Mess Hall, the Grand Auditorium and the Library.
The morphological aspect of the design was based on the need to express the military character of the complex with strict lines and clear building volumes, to highlight elements of Greek Architecture, such as symmetric layouts, geometrical shapes, atria, colonnades, distinct paths through alleys or arcades, and finally to incorporate elements of modern architecture that reflect the dynamics and the major role of the Academy as an Educational Institution of Breakthrough Technology.
In this way, the buildings in the complex all together form an ensemble, expressed through a uniformed morphology, and their interconnection with metallic pathways and shelters, which mingle with the metallic structures of the buildings.
Furthermore, a basic aspect of the design is the rational organization of the functions in the layouts of the buildings and their depiction on the elevations. As a result, the buildings are characterized by clear and strict forms, by the depiction of the functional grid of the buildings through scotias on the elevations, as well as through the regular order of the openings and through the rational selection of their location and size.
The organization of the building volumes and elevation design in this way results in the differentiation and finally the distinction of each building according to its use.
Finally, a basic requirement in the design of each building was the application of bioclimatic principles and methods.