3RD OF SEPTEMBER | A promenade through public events in Thessaloniki
The 3rd of September takes the shape of an arc that connects the metro station to the waterfront. It is envisioned as a promenade through various public programs. These events in the park– shops, retails, hammam, information center, restaurants, kiosk, aviary and a swimming pool- emerge from the conjuncture of the masterplan’s axis and the arc of the 3rd of September. In this project, infrastructure becomes architecture. It is an attempt to have infrastructure and architecture forming a coherent whole to shape this new part of the city at various scales. The drawings tell a linear story from the subway station to the swimming pool, from dawn to dusk. Obviously, this story is a loose script, a reconfigurable one. Zooming in, the design efforts particularly concentrated on the Hammam. More than ever, when relationships between the eastern and western world are being increasingly weakened, we must investigate typologies that have crossed established borders. For centuries, from Roman baths to Turkish hammams, bathing was a communal place to discuss politics and social events on a daily basis. Connected to a new archology site, the whole building is underground except the circular Frigidarium that is visible from the upper level. The building is envisioned as a hybrid between a roman bath and a hammam, and therefore includes a pools, two big steam rooms, personal steam rooms, massage rooms, saunas and a hot stone area.
Thessaloniki, Greece
Fall 2015 // Critic: Elia Zenghelis & Andrew Benner
Project published in Retrospecta 39
