Concrete Experimentation

Entry Gates, Fence

ΑΓΡΟΚΤΗΜΑ ΓΚΑΣΤΡΩΜΕΝΗ
ΞΕΝΟΥΣ ΞΕΝΙΖΕ ΜΗ ΘΕΟΥ ΞΕΝΟΣ ΓΕΝΗ
ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΙΑ ΝΟΥΝ ΥΛΗ ΖΕΥΓΝΥΕΙ

—Inscriptions on the front panels of the gate pillars

The dirt road that snakes down Divlaka, the bay to the south of Trivlaka, touches on Gastromeni at a point a little above the site of Mikro Horio, our compound. Here, we demolished a section of the dry-laid-stone boundary wall and brought a driveway down to the house site.

A simple chain, stretched across the opening, served for a few years as notice that this spur off the road was private, but from the outset, our intention was to construct a proper entrance to the land.

Early designs focused on wrought iron, the usual material for such gates. In keeping with the rest of the compound, though, Christos settled upon a design of cast concrete pillars, with the gates themselves fashioned out of a custom-made iron frame and covered with a skin of ferrocement. A crew headed by local contractor Nikolos Philippas helped us realize the design in autumn of 2006.

The entrance comprises a large double gate, wide enough for a truck to pass through, and a small side gate for pedestrians. The two pillars of the main gate are 50x50 cm in plan and set at a 45-degree angle to the gate axis for reasons corresponding to the Vitruvian tripartite definition of Architecture:

commodity: the swing of the gates against the inner adjacent face of the pillar affords a tighter turning radius for vehicles entering the narrow space inside, and places the gates beyond potential damage.
firmness: each gate (estimated at 400 kg) hangs on the axis of the pillar's diagonal which, at 70 cm, offers stronger moment resistance than the 50 cm side.
delight: the angled pillars increase the perceived width of the gate and draw the visitor in.

The gate platform has iron guide-rails embedded in the slab, on which the gate halves travel on spring-loaded casters. Although each gate half weighs an estimated 400 kg, the gates easily open and close by pushing or pulling them. The swing terminates at a concrete block, equipped with rubber stops and two handles to facilitate its removal from the hole in the slab where it rests, so that low-slung vehicles may enter.

The two pivot hinges of each gate are cantileveled from a vertical piece of steel tubing embedded in the middle of the pillar, assuring rigidity and accurate spacing.

The pillars were cast in place. However, one of the four faces of each pillar was precast, in a mold similar to that used for concrete doors. Face down on the mold, fired clay letters were placed forming the inscriptions described below. They were held in place with double-face tape while the mold was filled. The concrete in the mold was not screeded. Instead, it was indented with the trowel edge and iron angles embedded in it to help anchor the panel to the cast-in-place portion of the pillar. After the concrete panel with the inscription cured, it and its mold became part of the formwork for the pillar.

Christos made the clay letters himself, slightly wedge-shaped so as to be held in place in the concrete panel, and had them fired at a pottery kiln. The pillars are capped with concrete pyramids cast from a mold. Finials on top of the pyramids, as well as the gate handles, are concrete spheres cast in a mold made by using styrofoam spheres as prototypes.

The Greek letter tiles on the pillars spell out the quotations that translate into English as follows:

The shorter pillar on the right reads: Gastromeni Country Estate.
The middle pillar reads: Be Hospitable to Strangers So You Will Not Be a Stranger to God (It is taken from a sign in the monastery of Patmos, and puns on the word Ξενος, which means both stranger and guest in Greek).
And the left-hand pillar reads: Geometry Couples Mind With Matter. (It was inspired by the sign at Plato's Academy that read, No one may enter without knowledge of geometry.

Back Gate to Mikro Horio and Fence of Cast Concrete Panels

The gate that admits entrance to Mikro Horio from the driveway is similarly constructed, this time with Christos, our son Argyrios, and our assistant Georgi providing the labor.

The portion of the north fence next to the path descending from the east gate toward the back patio is made of concrete precast panels. They were made in molds, similar to those utilized for the concrete doors. Two different molds were used, and their products alternate on the fence. One is a relatively flat, horizontal piece, with three cast recesses to accentuate its horizontality, and the other a vertical piece, U-shaped in section, to provide lateral stability. The alternating vertical and horizontal sections relate to the island dry walls that define properties, in which large upright slabs of schist alternate with smaller, horizontally laid stones.

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