Urban design
Presentation 21-5-2009
Analysis
The area is located on the east side of Thessaloniki, and it is an area of transition from the urban space to the «rural» space.
This contrast between the two regions led us to explore an alternative way in the organization of urban space, not limited by the strictness of building blocks, but a proposition which attempts to deal with a new relationship between urban and rural fabric, the built and unstructured, public and private, giving base on the transitional spaces between the two above.
So we tried to use the dwelling units in order to create ideal spaces and small- environments. In this way, we have a different from the existing concept, of development and correlation of social relations born in an area residence.



First ideas
Initially, we understood the activities that a residence area has to cover, are more «concentrated» at some points and more «relaxed» in others. We related, in this way, this structure with a structure of a sponge, which «absorbs» activities by a place and spreads them to another. We employed the concept of "porosity", to say, how this diffusion of activities and the transition from a region to another happens. Also to what extent, where and how these transitions are created. Then we saw that the «transitional sites play a very important role in the organization of a residence site, where we find different levels of privacy, which successively passes into public. We seek to create a succession of such sites, closed / open, private / public, of small / large concentration, etc.

Proposition
In our masterplan , we propose «moving» areas, entering each other, which, in some cases, seek continuity and connection and in other cases they prefer the discontinuity and the «isolation». So we introduce the element of surprise, such as the ending of a large open space in an enclosed area. Furthermor, we design the street and his around region, with «narrows» and «wides» like a serpentine, in order to reduce the speed of vehicles going to the bottom.
The square grid, used for the organization of «complexes», is the tissue that “connects” the road (and the view of the mountain) with the sea at the north-south, the urban space with the countryside in the east-west direction. The «level» of this connection or non- connection is what we try to experiment.
Also the above grid isn’t used as a restriction but as a tool, so that with various treatments we could reach to complexity. Actually, we don’t use a repeating pattern, but an indicative figure, on which we will be based to create transformations.
The same treatment we apply to wider systems and relationships of housing clusters. We try to deal with flexibility in plan view and space in order to create different qualities of space, with access, optics, lighting, ventilation, a sense of “closety” or “openness”. At the same time trying , to avoid the creation of a «chaotic» spaces we form our open spaces as landmark-squares for orientation and we suggest the connection of open spaces in order to create a pedestrian network that allows wandering and exploration of the space, while, on shorter routes, enables fast movement from one region to another. Moreover, the buildings differ in height in each region. The area adjacent to the north road, is higher, while, going towards the sea, the size and the height of the buildings decrease.
Regarding to the types of housing, in order to reply to social demands and lighting-ventilation needs, we organize the complex of branches , each one with residences in its two sides, positioned in the way to generate concentrations.
In these branches, housing - «boxes» are placed. Reached by two horizontal corridors per two floors (as we propose two- floors appartements ) and vertical communication, with staircases at certain points. In this way we have the opportunity to remove some «boxes», in order to create openings-passages, when we are talking for the ground level and terrases, for the floors, or, in order to release the corridor from one side, so that he acts as a balcony to the internal yard.
The regions around the residence are semi-public, including car parks and within closed groups create homes with courtyard entry through the corridors in the ground level, or staircases to the corridors of the floors.