Overview  

 

 

The project deals with great-scale interventions in the urban tissue. The design goal is the incorporation of new land uses in the study area. in this context, a wide reformation of the functional and morphological elements that constitute the present character and the image of the region is proposed.

 

In the specific study area, public uses are spatially related to the vehicular traffic, whereas the private ones are situated in the interior in order to preserve privacy.

Thus, the building volumes for commercial use, offices and public welfare services are placed on the fronts of the two main axes (Irakleiou and Papanastasiou), while the housing complexes are introvert and expand on the riverside zone. Such distribution of use, along with the formation of the ground in different levels defines the open-air public spaces by providing different qualities. As the cultural, commercial and entertainment use are judged to be insufficient in the area,

the factories of Britania and Tegopoulou are converted into a municipal cinema, restaurant and flea market respectively.

 

 Motions of urban intervention

 

In response to the existing problems in the study area, such as the high traffic, the pedestrians’ difficult movement and the simultaneous appearance of contrasting uses of land, the urban conceptual thought condenses in the two following axes:

The first one considers the unification of the green spaces, that are greatly dispersed. Therefore, a pedestrians ‘walk’ is designed, connecting to the south the riverside of Podoniftis with the Prodoba bocage and to the north the riverside of Giabourla with the Probona bocage, through tree clad paths which go pass

the reformed blocks. The second intervention consists of the formation of a ‘commercial and cultural walk’ that will connect the aforementioned railway station

to the thicket of Nea Filadelfia. This route will traverse through the main open grounds of the project’s proposal continuing to the buildings of the old factories, which are now reused and obtain a new value. Of particular importance is the design of planted areas on both sides of the Podoniftis stream. These two walks are developed in parallel and they attempt to unify the different parts of the study area by activating the function of public open – air spaces (pedestrian roads, squares,

parks, riverside paths). The allocation of the circulation is redesigned with emphasis to the pedestrian visitor and inhabitant.