A big percentage of the refugees that came to Greece in the first half of the 20th century, settled in the prefecture of Komotini, creating new rural villages or new districts in the periphery of Komotini. One of those districts became the core of this thesis.
The population of the district of St. George in Komotini is shrinkening gradually, leaving behind abandoned residentenced-souvenirs of another era. It is the architectural and historical value of this area, in addition to the significant residential stock which remains untapped, that created the desire of the finding of a strategy that could bring to life the residences and the whole district in the same time.
The proposal in set in two basic axes:
a) The attracting of active population in tha area motivated by the RECO workshop, a way to recooperate, reconstruct and reconnect. Through a participatory design strategy the residents of the district are motivated to turn the area to a network of knowledge, art and craft, through a series of workshops and actions that will finally lead to the restoration of the whole area. The proposal is based on the creative cooperation of the residents, the prefecture of Komotini, specialized craftsmen willing to create new work studios in the district and share their knowledge in crafts and everyone that wants to participate and learn. The designing decisions are taken in common through open community discussion in the presentation centers and in the new info center everyone can be informed about the actions and the programmes that are about to happen, in case he wants to join in.
b) 6 vacant houses with an usused same plot next to them, are about to be the core of the RECO workshops. Timber frame extensions will be constructed in that plots, working as parasites that will copy the base point of the original residence and adjust it to something new, according to the residential requirements of nowadays. The new combination of residences will work as semi-public workplaces in the base floor and private housing for the craftman in the top levels.
