MATERIAL SYSTEMS FOR THE USE OF SPACE. : USING A PROCESS-ORIENTED APPROACH AND UTILIZING A TOOLBOX METHODOLOGY FOR MAINTAINING & ENHANCING THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF GERANI DISTRICT IN ATHENS.

Abstract: The project occurs in Gerani which currently holds a complex social network and a rich historical building stock. The major challenge for the thesis was to illustrate a way of resetting the existing human, natural and physical resources and work out a proposal that relates architecture and planning to society and economy but goes beyond real estate investments. The project aims to recombine the area’s building stock, human potential and manufacturing tradition with innovation, in order to create a small-scale production hub. It proposes the administration of resources ‘in common’ and puts forward appropriate tools for active involvement of inhabitants, owners and newcomers alike. It thus advocates for a new model of city ‘sharing’ (nome), which unlike the case of a city managed by the experts, it has a potential to unfold an alternative relation between architecture and the city’s economy and work out a notion of ‘Home’ for the rapidly deteriorating Athens city-centre.