"Urban regeneration along Thessaloniki's medieval wall"

An urban revitalization study of a degraded sector, along the ruined Byzantine wall down to the “Vardari” crossroad, culminates in an architectural vision for a New City Museum, at the restructured 30’s-Italian Royal School and “Republic Piazza”, highlighting an archaeological promenade towards the traditional “Uphill Town”.

Because… We consider architecture a decisive means to amend civic life, especially amid the current Greek crisis… The expanses of dormant archaeological substrata underneath modern Thessaloniki bring forth a fascinating question: How could both the present and past conditions of the city be handled so as to properly co-exist and interact fruitfully?... A prospect of urban redevelopment will have latent features of “Vardari” activated, malfunctions rectified, and a proper role reinstated for the area as a nodal city unit… A plethora of local witnesses of built past, whether apparent or concealed, foreshadows the exploitation of historical legacy as the key towards the fulfillment of the aims just stated… A breakdown of that key renders a sequence of consecutive spatial ordering actions, sliding smoothly from the general to the specific: 1. Charting an archaeological promenade along the Byzantine wall, from the ancient port to the traditional “Uphill Town” (Ano Poli) 2. Upgrading St Apostles’ church and the “Phoenix” Ottoman baths milieus 3. Revitalizing the dilapidated tobacco warehouses with new collective, educational, cultural and productive uses 4. Providing a network of attractive open public green spaces 5. Coping with traffic anarchy by means of projected parking lots 6. Restoring and incorporating, on the one hand, the former Royal Italian Manzoni School bare facades and, on the other, the deep archaeological dig (ancient port) just behind them into a far-reaching synthesis for a new emblematic City Museum intertwined with the remodeled “Republic Piazza”. The complex responds to the demand for a cultural knob operating multiply and informally, merging with the civic flux as well as emphasizing on the strong presence of inbuilt history. It will thus form a dominant link –and an inclusive landmark- of the archaeological promenade which, via a spacious underpass crossing Egnatia Street channels unobtrusively the pedestrians to and fro.