Redesign of the urban Waterfront, Thessaloniki

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International Architectural Competition – Award 
client: Organisation of the Cultural Capital of Europe, U.I.A.
date:  1997
location:  Thessaloniki
architectural design: Atelier Yannis Tsiomis, Y. Andreadis, S. Linder

Project Details

The proposal embodies the complexity of the existing city in the waterfront city limit by inscribing the proposed configurations in a grid. This grid is based on the points where the urban fabric collides with the city waterfront. These are points of interest which play an important role in the design development. The grid is also posed on the sea of Kodra. It metaphorically expresses the relation of the archaeological to the urban, while lighting up, and thus protecting from damage and theft, the submerged ruins.The interventions are extended in the sea by means of small point-structures which constitute a wave-like line corresponding to the Alexandrou Boardwalk and the Poseidonio canal.

The project comprises three sectors. The first extends from the White Tower to Poseidonio and to the M. Alexandrou high-speed artery. Six express lanes are placed underground, in order to transform the expressway into an urban avenue, thus permitting the city’s principal transversal streets, to reappear on the waterfront. Mixed-use and institutional buildings are added where required to give coherence to the urban form, and urban spaces are created to give a suitable context to certain historic buildings.

The second sector, the shoreline of Sophouli and Kodra, is preserved largely as a natural site. The former fishermen’s docks are refurbished, and the archaeological grid placed on the water.

The Kalamaria Marina, the enlarged Mikra Athletic Centre and the New European Technological and Institutional District constitute the third sector. The European District is conceived as a structured urban extension that defines a new, clear limit to the city thus restricting suburban sprawl.