Structures for current and potential citizens of Thessaloniki

By the end of 2018, more than 13,000 refugees were stranded in temporary camps in northern Greece. The living conditions in the camps were poor, with people accommodated in tents, prefab containers and abandoned warehouses. As opposed to the camps - which do not provide or facilitate livelihood opportunities for the residents - the city center of Thessaloniki represents opportunities for work, and thus a potential for integration.

The 'Structures for current and potential citizens of Thessaloniki' project proposes a strategy for resettling refugees in the city center while supporting and revitalizing a neighborhood in need of upgrading. The strategy includes solutions and interventions on three levels: an urban level, a block level and building design level.

Urban Level

Thessaloniki has a history of hosting large numbers of new arrivals, mostly because of its geographical location in the Central Macedonia Region. The history of migration in Thessalonoki has had a large impact on the development of the city up until today. The Asia Minor Catastrophe (1919-1922) caused mass displacement in the region, leading to some 130,000 persons to seek sanctuary in Thessaloniki. The city had to come up with a quick solution for housing, which led to the 'Polykatoikia' typology, and from then on influencing the urban layout in large Greek cities. Anyone could - and did - become a builder. The system of the Polykatoikia is called Antiparochi, meaning «a supply in exchange» in Greek. It was a useful tool in dealing with the housing shortage, and it has served generations of citizens and migrants with housing alternatives.

The lifespan of a polykatoikia structure built in the 1960’s is calculated to be approximately 70 years. A well known renovation strategy in Thessaloniki is to physically support the concrete construction of polykatoikia buildings, because of the decaying structures. The concrete quality is not of today’s standard, both in terms of the reinforcement and the size of the cross section of the beams.

In response the project proposes a horizontal and a vertical support system. The horizontal system is based on steel columns connected to the ground floor concrete columns to increase the stiffness of the cross section of the column. The vertical supportsystem increases the stability of the structure by adding an additional core placed outside the building.

Xirokrini neighborhood host community

In the western part of the city center of Thessaloniki, there is a multicultural neighborhood called Xirokrini. The blocks of the area mostly consist of the Polykatoikia typology, except from a few old brick houses and the public buildings. The neighborhood was established by migrants in the 50’s and 60’s. Since the area is located outside the former city wall, the economic growth and urban development has been slow. Today however, Xirokrini is one of the Municipality’s focus areas for upgrading. The population is already a mix of citizens and new arrivals, who are either renting apartments or squatting in the vacant buildings.

The large number of vacant buildings present a potential for housing and common spaces. How can the empty ground floors and the unused spaces in the neighborhood be transformed into common structures for both current and protentional citizens?

The project proposes a scalable system, an urban and structural strategy, rethinking (access to -) public spaces by opening up the ground floors of all buildings within the neighborhood site boundaries. This is made possible by implementing a new steel support system that structurally supports the existing, decaying buildings and actives unused spaces – to be used for new housing units for the new arrivals, but also for work – and common spaces.