The aim of the project “New Urban Places” is to research the parameters and urban principals that shape, form, and reform, the urban networks in the city, through local experiences and expressions. Its goal is to explore the folding aspects of the city as well as its marginalized surrounding areas, and the ways that these areas are familiarized and comprehended through active centers in Thessaloniki and Berlin respectively.
The first part of the project will focus on the analysis of the concept of “space” and its parameters and the variables which ultimately transform and create the identity of a “place”. Furthermore, an analysis of the factors and network systems that together create the image of the contemporary city will be considered, incorporating personal observations of those very functions.
This study will draw on the personalized viewpoints of residents living in a contemporary city, and aims to locate elements which either offer the ideal circumstances through which space is used by individuals, or challenges them to use, format, and personalize the city’s environment for themselves, ultimately giving them the opportunity to freely express their demands and fulfill their needs within the space itself.
The second part of the project will introduce the concept of the “social center” as a means to claim aspects of the urban domain, which has been used as a method by European citizens as well as indicate specific activities and interventions of citizens of Berlin and Thessaloniki. An attempt will furthermore be made to localize and analyze the systems and principles of actions and interventions in relation to space, so that a revaluation and redefinition of special identity may be made.