In the scale of an urban planning and design project, a drawn line is no longer a wall or facade detail, but a highway, a pavement, even a square. Multiple social, spatial and economic reasons define and shape the way a project is conducted.
This project is located in the west side of Thessaloniki, an area with vicinity to the main axis and entrances of the city, as well as the city’s harbor. Very important buildings and former factory plants are located there, reflecting the industrial past of the city. In this age, these facilities are used as museums, or they are being renovated and used as recreation centers. However, an obscure ownership state and relation with authorities, have lead many buildings to decay, not to mention the degradation of the area.
The concept of the project is to unify the area and create a common background for all the historic buildings and units. The intended result would be the creation of an extended industrial history center that could house multiple uses, in order to revive the area.
A 5 by 5 meter grid is implemented in order to unify and readjust boundaries. New buildings are being constructed, organized by this new grid, balancing the relation between the built and unbuilt environment, housing at the same time new uses.
This grid also organizes the urban design of the area. Elements such as green, water, and equipment are placed according to the shape and size of the available space, supplementing the use of the buildings. A “library” of different formats of every element is introduced. The free space is also covered by a synthetic material, an alternative to the hard and rough surfaces, giving a softer feel to the ground, as reminiscent to the existence of a shore and sand to the area.
By this way, the entire intervention is characterized by a specific design language, visualizing the grid and the unity of the intervention. Mass production and standardization are being redefined by new technology, creating a digital pattern on a unified canvas, where industrial history and legacy meets industrial design.
A second intervention takes place in a different area of the same region. The area has a strong economic activity, mainly due to the existence of Chinese merchants, who also inhabit the area.
A deformed free space has occurred, mainly due to a lack of implementation of previous urban planning developments, and as a result the space has turned into a huge parking lot, with the users struggling to move around various obstacles.
The goal of the project is to transform the area into a square available to accommodate multiple uses. Like in the previous project, the space is characterized by a unified design, where the circular formations on the ground, has now been lifted into the air. Circles are transformed into spheres, used as streetlight equipment, supported by a two-level network.
As a result, the area acquires a unique character again. The spheres reflect indirectly the Chinese influence in the area, as the cable support system, visualizes the complex relations between ethnicities and people that eventually could work together and fill any incomplete and distorted image.