Vanishing Point is situated in the periphery of a village of the greek countryside on the brink of complete abandonment, called Tavri, located just a minute away from the Highway E51, which vertically traverses the Regional Unit of Evros. Because of the demise of the local communities, E51 accommodates the movement of residents of the surrounding area seeking employment, entertainment and community beyond the bounds of their localities. E51 is also used by tourists traveling from Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries of the Balkan peninsula, as well as lorries that carry goods in and out of the country. Moreover, there are infrastructure works taking place on the E51, aiming to transform it into a closed highway, by phasing out all of its at-grade junctions and transforming some of them into grade separated interchanges. Vanishing Point focuses on the proposal of a service area next to the now closed highway, creating a common space for local and translocal social activities, while connecting locals with travellers from far-beyond. At the same time, it is designed to reconnect the traveller with the in-between geographies which they unknowingly permeate.

 The second point on which Vanishing Point is focused on is the transformation of the deserted village into an open museum, aspiring to bridge the gap between the urban residents and the countryside, abandoned by many of their descendants. The posthuman landscape of ruins, unguided vegetation and actors from the animal kingdom that define its new essence, offers traces of the past lives of the human inhabitants in Tavri and similar villages of the Greek countryside, revealing connections that extend from the domestic scale to broader translocal networks. Vanishing point includes eight different art installations built next to important landmarks of the empty village, designed to highlight the decaying bodies of the spaces they refer to. Their placement is also intended to act as a “compass”, through helping the visitors navigate between ruins, vegetation and the sky.

 The complete catalogue of design, art and architectural elements in Vanishing Point includes the motorway service area building, the reconfigured entrance and exit streetscapes, the washrooms on the opposite side of the highway, the underground pedestrian crossing and eight site-specific art installations.

Keywords: Countryside, Deserted, Posthuman landscape, Motorway service area, Transcommunality