Walking around the centre of Volos, one can observe a change in the frontages of ground floor shops. Old shop windows of stores that have been closed for years have replaced by a wall, with a door and a window. The phenomenon comprises a dynamic situation in which unused ground floor shops are converted into residences. This situation came about as a response regarding the utilisation of building stock that first began to exist with the financial crisis of 2009, but also the transfer of bricks-and-mortar stores to the digital space, chiefly due to Covid-19.

The solidity of the wall replaces the porosity of the ground floor, i.e., the window that fills the space between concrete columns and beams. Some other interior changes complete the process of converting empty shells into residences. Observing the phenomenon, we started to try and capture it by mapping it. While doing so, we made contact with ground-floor residents and examined who are the first subjects to test the new form of accommodation. By talking with them and recording the interiors of the new ground floor residences, we made a spatial analysis of their organising typology and individual elements.

This fieldwork was followed by a series of questions that arose out of it. Ground-floor renovations almost always take the same form, producing a kind of homogeneity on the urban front. The change that reveals that a renovation is taking place and that the existing space may have a new use, is that of the frontage. What, ultimately, is the quintessential characteristic that makes residences of the new ground floor spaces, and why?

Finally, what social practices does such a change produce in a provincial city like Volos? The effects on the networks of relationships that have been built up over the years thanks to local ground-floor shops and small business owners will be seen in time. Neighbourhood practices are called into question, as is the ambiguous identity of the shop that “opens” onto the street, blurring its boundaries with it.