Ellinikon Park: Planning for Climate Action and Carbon Positivity
Honor Award
Analysis and Planning
Athens, Athens, Greece
Sasaki
Client: Lamda Development
Greece’s first green infrastructure project is an ambitious effort to recycle space with a low carbon footprint and reuse of materials.
- 2024 Awards Jury
Project Credits
Michael Grove, FASLA, Principal in Charge, Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Anna Cawrse, ASLA, Participating Principal
Chris Hardy, ASLA, Project Manager, Technical Design Lead
Andrew Sell, ASLA, Senior Ecologist
Lanmuzhi Yang, ASLA, Senior Landscape Architect
Shuai Hao, ASLA, Senior Associate Job Captain Phase 1
Jingran Yu, Job Captain Phase 1B
Philip Dugdale, ASLA, Associate Principal, Parcel AA1
Kuan Gao, Job Captain Parcel AA1
Zixuan Ann Tai, Design Team
Sydney Bittinger, Design Team
Lucca Townsend, Design Team
Fangli Zhang, ASLA, Design Team
Chengzhe Zhang, Design Team
Shannon Rafferty, Design Team
Caitlin O’Hara, Design Team
Julian Osorio, Design Team
Aubrie Rhines, Design Team
Doxiadis+, Design Partner and Local Landscape Architect
Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc., International Civil Engineering
Atelier Ten, Sustainability Consulting & Lighting Design
LDK Consultants, Local Civil Engineering, MEP Engineering, Waste Management, Fire and Life Safety, Cost Estimation
Kalliergos O.T.M., Structural Engineering
AREA, Architecture
ETM Associates, Operations
Pentagram, Signage and Environmental Graphics
Fluidity, Fountain Design
Dr. Dimopoulos, University of Patras, Consulting Ecologist
Dr. Kosmas, Agricultural University of Athens, Consulting Soil Scientist
Hill International, PMC
Project Statement
The decommissioning of the former Athens International Airport presented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform obsolete infrastructure into a resilient, climate-positive park. Planning and design decisions for the park were grounded in the overarching goal of achieving carbon neutrality within 35 years. The Ellinikon Park provides accessible and inclusive spaces for play, civic celebration, and democratic expression within an oasis of biodiversity. The landscape architect-led team took a holistic, climate-action perspective for Greece’s first green infrastructure project, rigorously researching local ecosystems' carbon sequestration abilities, water systems, the local industrial ecology, and material reuse on a massive scale.
Project Narrative
The planning of the 650-acre Ellinikon Park began with a climate action goal-setting exercise and prioritization workshop. Through the use of benchmarking and interactive digital tools, the team convinced the client to pursue ambitious climate action goals, including planning for a carbon-positive, low-water use landscape, and creating an urban heat refuge. This commitment enabled supplemental field investigations, including extensive soil and concrete testing and field surveys of established vegetation across the decommissioned Athens International Airport site. Carbon goals proved particularly challenging at the onset when the design team created datasets with local Mediterranean ecosystem parameters, including a low-carbon sequestration and storage capacity biome, and local material Environmental Product Declarations. Through rounds of design iteration, testing, and advancement from planning to technical design phases, the park was able to achieve a projection of carbon neutrality in 35 years, a 45% decrease in embodied carbon, and an expectation of ~40,000 MTCO2e (metric-tons CO2 equivalent) additional carbon sequestered when the landscape achieves carbon carrying capacity. Key carbon reduction strategies included soil amendments and reuse, material reuse, afforestation, and minimizing new concrete applications. Repurposing of the existing airport runways enabled the reuse of approximately 150,000m3 of existing demolition material. Some materials are refinished in place; some are used in clean fill, crushed road base, or rip-rap; and some are upcycled as paving, benches, and retaining walls as a substitution for precast concrete. The planning process also included a full energy modeling study to size an on-site solar farm to offset operational energy. Maintenance manuals include specifying an all-electric fleet of vehicles and equipment, a commitment to organic horticulture, and integrated pest management practices. Irrigation is provided through reclaimed water sourced from sewage mining, with ~70% of the park dedicated as an ‘establishment-only irrigation zone’ and allowed to naturalize. A large-scale afforestation approach further supports carbon sequestration and urban heat island mitigation goals. The plant list—which includes over 3.3 million trees, shrubs, geophytes, and herbaceous material—was carefully considered based on native status, adaptability to local climatic conditions, and cultural connections and traditions. Given recent heat emergencies in Athens, and the projection for the city to see an average warming of +5.4°C by the end of the century, Ellinikon Park is designed as an urban heat refuge. The design team added strategically placed cooling stations, from water walls to misting stations within a 5-minute walk from anywhere within the park. The park also includes the largest public beach in Athens–a 1-kilometer-long, transit-served coastal front for an urban population that today must drive south or east beyond city limits to access high-quality public beaches. The Ellinikon Park and its waterfront will increase the allocation of open space per Athenian by 44%. This park is historic in ambition and service. It serves as a pivot from years of financial crisis and as an example of the future of Europe’s public spaces by providing an extraordinary public amenity with quality natural areas, play spaces, and recreational programs for an economically diverse and resilient community.