receptors of arbitrariness

diploma project

Kormpiz-Corbis Alkiviadis
 receptors of arbitrariness
diploma project

Definition of Arbitrary:
1. Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle. 2. Based on
or subject to individual judgment or preference. 3. Law Relating to a decision made by a court or
legislature that lacks a grounding in law or fact. 4. Not limited by law; despotic.
In an attempt to investigate everyday spontaneous structuring examples- structures derived
by the funtamental housing need, the following project focuses on a part of the Thessaloniki
city walls, where contradictive architectural elements are gathered next to each other. Byzan-
tine city walls, Minor Asia refugge huts (1922-...), apartment buildings of 70, recent barracks.
The coexistence and the special-polemic relationship between a historical monument, for-
mal and informal architecture, forms the urban image of the region and raises a dilemma
about the maintenance or not of the scheme.

During the last decades various agencies (state, municipality, etc.) have taken steps to remove
the historical refugee hut settlement that is attached on the walls (kastroplikta), but with
insufficient organization and lack of long term planning. Locals and architects organizations,
opposed, defending the right to housing and the architectural heritage of Thessaloniki.

In front of the dilemma: highlighting the monument by removing the shelters/ continuation of
the existing situation, the following project responds by analyzing the forces that configured
the space syntax of this area over the years. It combines them, it turns them into architectural
tools for the production of space, giving them new direction, composing-planning the future
development of the area on the same basis.

Spontaneous structuring expressed through arbitrary acts.

The constant legal uncertainty relative to the historical monument and the management
of its surroundings, turned the region-urban crack in a blur construction zone, allowing to
disadvantaged populations, to occupy it and set up the their lodging.

Similarly, the absence of restrictions, allowed individual developers to build tightly near and
onto the zone, irreversibly, without the possibility of future expansion, pushing the lodgers, to
add irregularly new parasitic structures (coverd balconies, unauthorized establishments) on
the body of the residential block, in order to meet their constantly emerging needs
This last phase completes the long history of arbitrariness in the region.

The unofficial architectural practice / arbitrariness, is an important factor in shaping the urban
landscape of the examined area and therefore is selected as the primary tool of the new
architectural intervention.
 analysis / historical facts, urbanism, typology, morfology

initial formation of refugee house polykatoikea contemporary spontaneous

ottoman era
city walls 1922-... 60s-70s shelter
80s-90s

construction walls

Urban landscape.
Product of interactin between the historical phases
Current situation.
Coexistence of contradictive built configurations.
initial wall configurations Minor Asia & refugee wave
Formal and informal structures
catastrophe new shelters-huts appear
(and their blurred boundaries)
Hellenistic period Roman Empire Byzantium 5th century. 1453 1830 1860 1880 1917 1922 1960 1968 1978 1979 1980 1981 1995 1996 1997 1998 2001 2002 2005 2007 Today
Kassandros 50 AD - 3rd century. 4th century. according to the current legal framework.

great fire of laws determine the demolision The absence of specified building laws, converted the murall
of the old informal houses zone into a greyzone, letting constructors build close to the
Thessaloniki
monument, even demolish it partially, in order to achieve the
highest profit (60s). The housing needs of the rural popula-
tion that inhabited the city led to
massive construction.
Along with the arbitrary refugee
shelters of the past, new addings
appeared, this time on the body
of the dense appatment blocks
in order to cover the
emerging needs.
 site of intervention
Grows lengthwise. Encloses the historic center
urban tissue analysis
Acts as a host for the barracks (kastroplikta). Provides protection and construction materials

catalogue of arbitrary addings.

kastroplikata.
small makeshift dwellings attached to the wall. included in its geometry.
attach a one or two sides, for residence walls.
small volumes with one or two rooms. in groups they share common living spaces.
extension of daily activities in the public space. appropriation of it.
creation of a camp attached to the wall,

frame + filling structural box

polykatoikea- appartment block.

development in height, floors 3-8

structural system
 Facade, materials warehouse, textures palette,
landmark, shared spaces
plan Future tenants get the materials needed from the facade-warehouse, they copy
Combining the typologies above, a new structure assembly techniques from the pallette, to build their new homes, which gradually Framework, structural system of new dwellings, receptor of the spontane-
integrated into the urban environment in terms of materiality and scale. ous building activity.
emerges. A structure that encourages continuous Functions as a Landmark. Includes the necessary facilities for water supply and electricity.
It collects and displays materials and textures of the elements of the area.
operations, concentrating spontaneous structuring in The more tenants come to build their homes, the more the facade gets emptied
height. It is a proposal for a new typology that emerges preserved of materials, assigning the revealed area to the shared space.
from the data of the analysis of the spatial/ architec- Most tenants-users = more shared space
tural experience of the area.
The new structure-receptor is placed on the unbuilt
half of an adjacent to the wall, city block (inserting the
new typology in the modern urban tissue)
and oriented towards the ruins.
The scaffold with its improved infrastructures and
material pallette, influenced by the existing textures of
the site, difines the framework within which the dis-
placed residents of shelters will supplement gradually,
abandoning the kastroplikta.
Tries that way, to predetermine as posible, the evolu-
tion of that living structure, in order to achieve a long
term integration in its built environment, while intro-
ducing a new proposal to the urban image.

total area division potential

potential combinations of houses on floors, in relation 1050 m2 into
to the water supply network and electricity configuration
modules of housing
modules

potential floor plan configurations.

vertical circulation

construction materials/ techniques/ shared

spaces
bricks, tubes, metal and wooden beams, planks etc.
examples of components assembly

electricity wet spaces

water network
collection of rainwater
/phases of the evolution of the strategy

north elevation north elevation - section north elevation - section north elevation - section