Manual for Abandoned City Centers

At central parts of Athens and Thessaloniki, entire neighborhoods are currently abandoned and empty. Traditionally developed with multi-store buildings between the ’50s and the ’70s, they contributed to the formation of a dense urban fabric supporting mainly manufacture and warehouses. The abandonment and the density of these built areas ask for an idiosyncratic urban design. The work is focussed to the re-elaboration of this “existing” multi-storey empty field through an architectural – curatorial strategy that arrange anew the recent urban remains. The commitment to a new, different sparse urban space (that will invert the condition of the uselessly condensed built field) and a strategy of limited, controlled demolitions and thorough material extractions form the brief of the studio.