Architect
Foteini Kallikouni
Studio Co-participants: Vasiliki Zochiou, Vasilis Mavrianos, Melina Anzaoui, Tassos Govatsos
Project Year: 2020
Location: Aristotelous Axis, Thessaloniki, Greece
Type: Academic Project
Professor: Elias Zengelis
The project was presented at the Greek Pavilion of the 17th Venice Biennale of Architecture 2020/2021 in the context of the Urban Design Studio "The Dormant Axis: Revival of Thessaloniki's Aristotle Street". Nikos Kalogirou was the coordinating Curator of the exhibition "Boulevard de la Société des Nations: The Aristotle Axis in Thessaloniki" which took place from May to November 2021.
Studio Brief
"The studio brief envisaged the evaluation of Aristotle Street, as the city’s dominant organisational axis, to be followed by proposals for its transformation, as paradigms for the future. As such, it was part of a large objective: the study of the contemporary Greek city’s evolution, whilst asking for the design of exemplary archetypes. The studio’s understanding of the term paradigm was deemed to be that given by Thomas Kuhn: applied to the discipline of architecture, the term is therefore seen as a fundamental and exemplary concept, to be perceived as such by the architectural community as a whole; consequently, the objective of the requested transformation was to constitute a paradigm shift.
With this objective forming the criteria of the studio, the project evolved through the activation of the possibilities inherent in the trajectory that crosses the city fabric along the Aristotle Street Axis, which, operating as a relay conduit, runs into the sea. The reawakening of its underlying dynamic is thus stimulated by a sequence of heterogenous, yet co-dependent and linked interventions, starting in the upper city, and ending with an island in the Thermaic Gulf."
Elias Zengelis
Meta Mart
At the location where the Aristotelous axis is partially pedestrianized, between Egnatia and Mitropoleos Street, a new market is defined by the installation of a linear canopy. Adapted to future forecasts, the new market, influenced by the existing typologies of markets, aims to solve problems of storage, delivery time and interaction with the product.