HUBitat

HUBitat acts as a counteraction to the financial crisis that afflicted Greece, by restoring partially the manufacturing sector in the urban landscape. It hacks an existing structure where the functions of a fab lab and a hub are inserted.

In order to empower the local economy and the new entrepreneurs, we chose an existing structure in Thessaloniki, which will engulf those functions that will amplify the local productivity. Our building of interest is an empty urban cell that stands as a live testimony of the financial depression and demands a delicate approach that will act as a solution to the current situation. For this reason, we insert a fab lab and a hub. We designed production, working and learning spaces that promote the democratization of information and production. Our intention is to provide the essential tools one needs to materialize his/hers idea at a marginal cost. Moreover, newly created enterprises (start-ups) are given the chance to obtain their own, low cost, working space, where they can interact with larger companies, thus creating an ambiance of collaboration and solidarity. Analyzing the project, we transform the North-East part of the building into a vertical association of the inner procedures and the urban landscape, while a conveyor stripe receives the material and delivers them to the fab lab. The fabrication laboratory occupies the first three floors of the building, thus retaining the public character of Emporiou square. Each floor plan is designed so as to follow the process of producing an object, the? importation of raw materials-processing-packaging-export back to the city. The fourth floor exists as a spatial break between the two main functions and houses four meeting rooms. The next three floors accommodate the working spaces (hub) in a semi-open space conformation, where operable walls provide the capability of transforming the offices according to the current needs. Generally, the restoration of manufacturing in the urban environment can not only affect its economy, but also substantially modify its shape, since a building can produce new parts of the city up to the utopian point, where the city reaches its autonomy and reproduces itself.