The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center is a complex in Kallithea, Athens, on the site of the former Hippodrome. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation funded it and chose Renzo Piano as architect in 2008. Construction began in 2012, and it was completed in 2016 at a cost of 861 million dollars. It was donated to the Greek state in 2017.
The design has an artificial hill with a planted roof over the library. The opera house roof carries a canopy on thin steel columns. A photovoltaic roof field, 328 feet (100 meters) square, produces about 3 gigawatt-hours a year, and the roof is suspended on dampers for resilience.
The complex houses the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera, which has a 1,400-seat auditorium. A park of 210,000 square meters surrounds it. It was the only Greek nominee for the 2018 RIBA International Prize.
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