Parallel Cultures, Common Places

The multi-cultural heritage of Thessaloniki supports the diversity and the peculiarity of different nationalities, cultures and traditions. The subject of our project is the design of a sustainable installation to be used by minor and neglected communities coming from different places to Thessaloniki. The accommodation of various urban activities is seen as an effort to enhance social merging, cultural interchange and ethnic assimilation.

The site is located in an area that is characterised by a mixture of cultures. Our intervention attempts to give an ecological way of development through the maximum exploitation of the resources and the existing infrastructure. At the same time, the formation of the most appropriate conditions for the cohabitation of the different people was tried, together with the augmentation of the expression of the parallel cultures.

We think that the environmental and structural transformation of the site encourages the unification of the activities, the work, the communication, and the facilitation of everyday life and creates for these people a common point of reference, a common place.

One of our initial decisions was to maintain the low profile and volumes of the site. Taking into account contextual and environmental parameters, a general plan of activities is proposed. These are divided into recreational, commercial, cultural and educational.

Energy resources were chosen to be friendly for the environment and sustainability was supported with proposals such as green roofs, tanks for the collection of rainwater, the use of photovoltaic panels for electricity and lighting, the cultivation of plants according to sun position and orientation, the use of recyclable and reused materials like panels and wood some of it already existing in the site.

Green roofs improve the microclimate of the area, reduce noise, dust and pollution, increase the insulation of the roof, and offer aesthetic and functional advantages.

Trees and low plantation contribute to the reduction of the temperature of the outdoor spaces and create a pleasant atmosphere during the summer, as their leaves absorb a great deal of solar radiation.

Green walls exploit solar energy and maintain the balance between water and air creating the best conditions for the plants.

Finally, photovoltaic panels store energy during the day that can be used for lighting in lampposts during the night.

The inhabitants of the area will be provided with raw materials, such as wooden pallets that can disassemble themselves into planks and empty wooden frames, which can be mantled with different recyclable materials (ropes, mats, fabrics etc). In that way they have the opportunity to build constructions according to their needs.

A mobile unit was designed for vendors and store owners, who also move around to sell their products. It is constructed from parts of wooden pallets and has a metal substructure. The unit, when closed, can be transferred on wheels while storing the merchandise. It consists of 3 parts:

-A display and selling surface

-A metal substructure

-A bench

It can be assembled and disassembled by the user on site.

The inhabitants of the area have the possibility to create benches, stools and storage units with the use of wooden frames and planks from the dismantle of the provided wooden pallets. These elements can be used as stand-alone units or as groups and can be transformed according to the user’s will.

The wooden pallet and its parts is also used for the creation of a permanent structure designed according to the orientation of the plot and the suggested programs. The flexibility of the structure is based on the various combinations of metal joints. The arrangement of the wooden structures defines seating areas, open green spaces and activity fields. For cultural activities an amphitheatrical space is formed by the free stacking of the wooden pallets.

"Lemonadika", the old Vegetable Market of Thessaloniki, is situated between Ag. Dimitriou Str. and Kassandrou Str. in a very densely inhabited area of the city. The building of the old Market is developed around an internal courtyard and it has been abandoned since 1975.
During the last ten years hundreds of families from Russia, Georgia, Albania, Polland and other countries of Eastern Europe have settled in the area, mostly because of cheap rents, bringing elements and habits from their home countries and giving a multi-cultural character to the area.