The present thesis dealt with one of Heraklion’s city centre neighborhoods, Lakkos. For many decades the region remained under a regime of immobility, forgotten by its citizens, in the shadow of the city centre. The latter mutated rapidly, whereas Lakkos remained branded and only with the remembrance of its foul past activities. It is one of the Old City sections in a state of dereliction and marginalization, without any concern or clear intents about the future.

However, this situation seemed to change, about 15 years ago, when the neighborhood was chosen as the region where the new Cultural centre of the city, was going to be built. The simultaneous, search for a spatial and planning policy, the upgrading and taming efforts of the close by streets, city blocks and people that Lakkos neighborhood consistent of in its current phase, evoked reactions and concerns.

With the those conflicts from the past decade as a starting point, begins the study and analysis of the neighborhood while trying to make clear and comprehensible all those factors that created, influence and shape the image of Lakkos in the present day. The fragmented population, hardly forming a community; the efforts of various teams and groups to make visible and known the past and present of the region; actions and activities, mostly cultural, in order to attract the residents of Heraklion; small businesses and some of the first people to return or settling around Lakkos square; but, most of the older dwellers are already gone.

Between the lack of planning policy and official resolution tools, the intention is to create, or to design a procedure, which allows creative conflicts, with space in their core. More specifically, public –and ideally common- space, that the new and older residents are called to put under consultation and negotiation, in an attempt the creation of a common place, as well as a common good, deriving from and molding the community.