INSIGHTS: URBAN STRATEGIES

Specific Foundation / Core

The objective of the Studio is to explore the inert urban region of the Old Railway Station, resulting in a new urban system that functions as a 'museums’ quartier'. The 'Museums’ Quartier ' which will include the Holocaust Museum, the Museum of Railway and the Space for temporary Exhibitions of Contemporary Art is expected to operate as a catalyst of collectivity for the city. The Museums, which will occupy part of the total area, will function within a park. The Studio thus aims at creating a hybrid 'park' with an ecological approach. The new features will be analyzed by the students, taking into account current or future physical networks (roads, public transport stations and stops, walkways etc.) linking the area with the city. The creation of the Holocaust Museum in place of the old Railway Station stipulates a memorandum of cooperation signed between the Municipality of Thessaloniki, GAIAOSE and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. Apart from the Holocaust Museum, the memorandum of cooperation foresees the creation of a conference hall in the same place which has a heavy historical load as it was the point from which the Nazis gathered and send the Jewish people of Macedonia to the camps for an inevitable death. As an original center of art and culture the Museums’ Quartiers invests in a multidisciplinary understanding of culture and is open to dialogue between national and cultural communities. Thus the Quartiers aim to create a place for cultural multiplicity, experimentation, communication and education combined with continuous action and variation. In the Museums’ Quartiers there will be independent new and previous restored historical constructions, while the design strategy should aim to connect the city with an area being drastically redefined.

16-02-2015