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| COMPETITION – Thessaloniki 06/ 06/1998 |
« Aristotelous axis, redesign of the civic axis »
| COMPETITION
This International ideas competition was launched within the context of the urban reflection set in motion by Thessaloniki as the 1997 Cultural Capital of Europe. The Organisation, through its action, offers to the city infrastructure and institutions for the development of cultural activities as well as plans and projects for the enhancement of its cultural identity, while at the same time it provides a unique opportunity to discuss the major problems of Thessaloniki, to deal with important interventions and to trace the guidelines which will yield the desired solutions and will allow the city to fully take over its role. The international Competition of the Organisation "Thessaloniki 97" wants to find a new design proposal which will complete the Aristotelous Axis taking into account the requirements of all encompassing plan, in the lines of the Hébrard plan left unfinished. It is obvious that any intervention on this civic axis cannot be the object of an isolated project. The inheritance of Hébrard's plan calls for a restructuring founded on proposals, which will emanate from a new large-scale architectural competition. |
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| The competition will
take the form of an open, public call for ideas. Its theme is ’Aristotelous,
Redesign of the Civic Axis of Thessaloniki’. The area consisting
of Aristotelous square, Aristotelous St., the Agora Square and the area
around St. Demetrius comprises the single most important public open space
in the city and constitutes the geographical, structural and monumental
centre of the city. The centuries old history
and existence of Thessaloniki is expressed most explicitly within this
axis, which stretches from the hills of the Upper Town to the sea, since
within it some of the most important historical monuments of Thessaloniki
co-exist with modern central activities, and residential and functional
areas of various social groups.
The purpose of the proclamation of the international architectural competition for the redesign of the Aristotelous civic axis is to attract the attention of international architects to an exceedingly attractive but problematic area of our city and to creatively enhance the discussions on its image and uses. The expected result of the competition is the emphasis on the symbolic and organisational role of the Axis in terms of the city's architecture, aesthetics, monumental wealth and open spaces as well as the support of the various functional uses that have developed within and around the axis in order to promote it into the most important public area in the city. APPRAISAL CRITERIA The projects should meet the following requirements, which might as well be basic criteria for the Jury appraisal also: - applicability of the urban-architectural proposals in general, compliance to the existing constraints and requisites on a functional, archaeological, aesthetic, technical, and geographical level, the recovering of the coherence and identity of the Axis, making up for the gap in the functional development and variety by creating a favourable environment for the public and specific activities carried out in the area, insertion of attractive, diversified public spaces adjusted to the site of a metropolitan city in the year 2000, the practical feasibility of the project proposals. explaining mainly the relations between built-up space (monuments, private buildings) and the open space, and architectural arrangements supporting the specific uses assigned for the open or built-up space, as well as the proposed solutions for public activities carried out in the area relating the interventions to the existing traces of the area. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> panels |
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