The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre opened in 2016 to a design by Renzo Piano on the site of the old Faliro racetrack in Kallithea, three kilometres south of the historic centre. The building houses the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera in two distinct volumes connected by a landscaped park. The park — designed by landscape architect Deborah Nevins — is public and free: 21 hectares of Mediterranean planting, walking paths, and views across the Saronic Gulf. Piano's roof is a tilted photovoltaic canopy extending beyond the building's footprint on a steel diagrid structure, sheltering the entrance plaza and channelling rainwater into the building's grey-water system. The interior of the library, with its light-filled reading rooms and terraced arrangement of collections, is among the most considered new cultural building interiors in southern Europe. The 45-minute tram ride from Syntagma is part of the experience: the building makes sense in the context of a city seen in motion.
Kallithea, Athens, Greece