Ellinikon Park: Planning for Climate Action and Carbon Positivity

Honor Award

Analysis and Planning

Athens, Athens, Greece
Sasaki
Client: Lamda Development

A ONCE-IN-A-GENERATION OPPORTUNITY

The decommissioning of the Athens airport provided an opportunity to transform the site into a climate-adaptive park prioritizing carbon-first design.

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CLIMATE ACTION GOAL SETTING

Establishing climate action goals early in the process guided decision-making from planning phases through technical design.

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DATA-INFORMED DESIGN DECISIONS

Using both Pathfinder and the Carbon Conscience app (developed by the landscape architect), design decisions were prioritized based on carbon impact.

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CELEBRATING HERITAGE THROUGH MATERIAL REUSE

A design language of material reuse embraces the site’s layered history and results in 100% of all existing hardscape materials repurposed on site.

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MATERIAL PROCUREMENT FOR CARBON EFFICIENCY

Rigorous research on imports, exports, and local fabrication in Greece informed design decisions related to the carbon impact of selected materials.

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EXTRAORDINARY USE OF AN ORDINARY MATERIAL

Concrete from existing runways is reused playfully to tell the story of the site’s past, reduce embodied carbon, and honor what used to be hidden.

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NET-ZERO ENERGY AND OPERATIONAL CARBON EMISSIONS

To achieve net-zero operational carbon, energy modeling for all lighting, fountains, and infrastructure informed the sizing of an on-site solar farm.

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SEQUESTERING CARBON BY EMBRACING BIODIVERSITY

A restoration ecology approach maximizes the co-benefits of carbon sequestration in living biomass and soil carbon, and renews regional biodiversity.

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RESTORING NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS

Over 3.3 million locally sourced plants will be selected for their habitat value, ecosystem services, and adaptability to the site’s alkaline soils.

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REDUCING MAINTENANCE TO REDUCE CARBON

Tying carbon performance to maintenance expectations enabled prioritizing restoration landscapes and concentrating investments in high-use areas.

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MAXIMIZING CARBON SEQUESTRATION THROUGH STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY

The design maximizes carbon sequestration in the landscape by prioritizing species diversity inclusive of overstory, understory, and soil biology.

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LEADING GREECE TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE NURSERY TRADE

The design team collaborated with Greek nurseries to create seed mixes and a native palette that established updated standards for the industry.

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A WATER MANAGEMENT PARADIGM SHIFT

As Greece’s first green infrastructure project, the park introduces rain gardens, bioswales, flow-through wetlands, and restored creek corridors.

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PLACEMAKING AND THERMAL COMFORT

Creating a heat refuge by providing public access to the beach as well as including shade, water features, and cooling stations throughout the park.

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INSPIRING INTERGENERATIONAL STEWARDSHIP

Youth programs, adventure playgrounds, and interpretive trails create educational opportunities that instill ecological values in the next generation.

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DESIGNED FOR LONGEVITY

Ellinikon is heroic in scale and ambition, reinforcing the Greek relationship with its landscape and reigniting this ethos in a 21st-century context.

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“

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

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.