The design competition for the Center for Holistic Medicine called for a building that represents the world-wide movement for a holistic medicine, both in form and program. Its founding represents the initiative to create an international forum for the advancement of alternative treatment methods. The Center will be a research clinic with spaces for treatment, teaching and research. It will facilitate long term studies for different forms of theraapy under scientific conditions. Located on the Greek island Alonnisos, it will further the efforts of the already existing Academy of Classical Homeopathy, founded by George Vithoulkas.

The proposal consolidates the different functions in a compact volume situated on a hillside that slopes down to Chrisi Milia beach. Different programmatic parts are incorporated in a single whole, rather than as fragmented singularities. The northern side of the building with views of the mountains houses the entry with administration and the therapy section. The perimeter on the west south and east sides with views of the sea houses bedrooms and apartments with communal terraces, and a cafeteria. The central introverted part of the building houses communal functions such as lecture hall, library and meditation rooms; they open to a secluded garden and a piazza.

The topography of the hillside is projected into the building as a system of staircases that connect the different parts of the program, like alleys in an ancient village. Lines of passage structure the building through cuts and bands of movement. They serve as paths for the exploration and discovery of unique relationships between building and landscape. Physical attributes and program coincide to establish a tectonic organism. There is no separation between program, structure, form and the relation to its habitat.

Category: Unbuilt, 2nd Prize
Location: Alonnisos, Greece
Year: 1998
Authorship: Georg Windeck