Part of the research theme was the examination of the interactive relationship between the city and the institution of the university. The coexistence of these two was analyzed, both in urban and in social and conceptual level. Also, the basic spatial and functional classification of the campus according to its urban context was detected. The main categories of a campus are the inner city campus, the Greenfield campus, the High Tech campus and other hybrid models which are results of the spatial and functional combination of the above.

The inner city campus, which is the most common spatial model, presents several subcategories, depending on the location and the level of ‘transparency’ of the city’s operation. In this way, the ‘diffuse’ urban campuses are identified, where the individual academic facilities are sited in different parts of the urban environment and those in which the different parts compose a single complex. Regarding to the functional ‘transparency’ the type of monastery campuses exist, providing the academic community with all the necessary urban functions within the territorial limits of the university. There are also the partially autonomous campuses, where the provided facilities do not cleave the users from the functions of the urban framework, and those where the presence of urban functions within their spatial limits are zero.

The choice of the location of a campus, beyond its functional nature, depends on the available buildings and spatial stock, the transport network to facilitate the access to and from the different parts of the city and the collaboration with other academic departments.

Study area of this project is the city of Volos, in which the spatial model of the ‘diffuse’ urban campus is detected, as the individual academic infrastructure is located between the city limits and its centre. The choice of the location, where the new campus will be created, the industrial building of the tobacco industry Matsagos, was based on the existing urban facilities located in this vicinity, on the easy access with the means of transport near the area, as well as on its central position in relation to the other higher education institution of the University of Thessaly.

Purpose of this project was the creation of a hybrid model, which can be part of the existing ‘diffuse’ campus, providing, though, facilities and green spaces, useable both by the academic and the local community, to such extend that the contribution of the city, through its provisions, remains important.

The incorporation of the city in the spatial context of the university and the opposite becomes apparent through the forming of the ground floor level. Both the uses taking place there and the management of the open space enhance the bidirectional interactive relationship between these two institutions.

Part of this project was also a proposal for the University Square, a pedestrianization of the Sokratous arcade and its side roads, in order to yield a single architectural language in all the individual elements of the city and the university. The city enters the university area by expanding the public square into the university complex taking the form of inner courtyards (a characteristic of the medieval campus), which gradually become more and more private. This action shatters the strict boundaries of public and private uses and crossing areas between those are being created.

The style of the preserved facades of this building is maintained and enhanced, creating a rigorous shell in its external facades, while the interior follows an opposite strategy in order the functional transparency to be morphologically attributed.