STUDENTS PROJECTS
PROJECTS 2011
Students : Zavitsanou Ioli, Poulokefalou Dimitra
Supervisor : Papaleksopoulos Dimitris, Stavridis Stavros
National Technical University of Athens, Department of Architecture
Presentation date : November 2011
The aim of this thesis is to introduce uses of alternative trade in the empty building of Minion - department store. The recent economic and social conjuncture could make as reconsider or put on a new basis the everyday commercial and economic interactions. We are deeply concerned about the construction of a core of alternative forms of trade which could enliven that big department store, whose empty structure has haunted the city.
Firstly in order to testify with clarification the architectural demands, we bore in mind the running tends of alternative forms of trade after a thorough research, and we had the following results:
Offer of food and household items at reasonable prices both for the producers and customers (e.g. "Sporos" grocer's shop) alteration of items and clothes (e.g. "Skoros"), all these are collective movements in order to solve the problem of unemployment. Here we can also name the collective café ("the Bench"). Secondly, estimating the whole venture of this operation and new structures, we came across new demands for empty room for assembly or temporal accommodations for producers from all over Greece or abroad. Ending, we presume that this specific place has born the necessity for negotiations with the vicinity of the nearby Omonia square, at the ground floor.
At first we made a paper craftwork and after a lot of experiments we used a lot of architectural vocabulary to apply the structural demands. Our venture is a construction which can be imposed strictly on Minion department store but it can also flourish as an alternative solution, in different situations. Thus the rhythmology of the existing building is firstly considered and as a consequence different but clear and territorial qualities may appear. Our goal is achieved by combining the old and the new in a completely unified structure.
