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URBAN BIODIVERSITY Location: Serres, Greece
Plot size: 25.000 m2 Project year: 2014 Architectural Competition Entry Team Architects: Thomas Dalampouras,Naya Stergiou |
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The modern city of Serres, like all Greek cities, has been formed in the context of the violent urbanization and the unregulated reconstruction of the postwar period. As a result, the public open air spaces of the city center are characterized by fragmentation and lack of an overall approach. These facts also apply to the study area; the Emporiou Square is essentially a traffic island, around which the city’s central functions develop. In conjunction with the lack of planning, the square is a crossing point and a market area rather than a living and stimulating space for the hundreds of pedestrians who cross it every day. The main objective of the design proposal is the unification and re-configuration of the split square as a vital part of a greater network of public open air spaces along with the existing cycle paths and walkways. The aim is to maximize the existing public space, so as to facilitate free movement for pedestrians and cyclists. Even more, it will constitute a space for rest and recreation inside a softscape that encourages spatial blend in and flows. At the same time, traffic network of the greater region is redesigned and an underground parking is proposed.
The design of the square integrates a series of sustainability enhancements for the area, resulting in a sizable green space in the very core of the city center. As an integral part of the proposed open air space network, the square will function in conjunction with the other open spaces of the city. The proposal actively integrates urban biodiversity in the design process, encouraging the rehabilitation of the multitude of living organisms that formed the currently damaged urban ecosystem. In this direction, a new urban topography of ‘green bumps’ is created on the unified landscape of the redesigned square, sculpting the form of the square as well as the form of the basic paths for pedestrians and cyclists. These ‘bumps’ are large green spaces that constitute urban habitats, in addition to acting as 'protective filter' against sound and visual pollution. |
Supplementary to the 'green bumps' and the extensive plantation of groups of trees, vertical vegetation is also proposed on the blind walls of the existing buildings in order to maximize the environmental benefits and upgrade the visual stimuli of the space. In this new green landscape, the design proposes a shelter above the underground parking, which integrates all the important functions of the square; it serves as a bus station, houses the pedestrian accesses to the underground parking, contributes through its pillars to natural lighting, cooling and ventilation of the parking area and covers the total of the energy needs of the square, as it is covered with photovoltaic panels. Furthermore, the shelter functions as a landmark and completes of the urban front. Moreover, it is equipped with all necessary infrastructure for wireless internet connection and an interactive screen so as to act as an 'information hub'.
The new square is in general redesigned as a focal point that will provide for a strong new identity to the center of Serres, creating an attractive landscape both to the user and the organisms of the urban ecosystem. Even more, working towards the 'smart city' concept, the new square incorporates numerous technologies related to energy sustainability and dynamic information to citizens. The proposal is a pilot project, as the core concept can be applied to other areas of the city, adapting to any open air space in relation to views and spatial flows of pedestrians and cyclists. Finally, the development of the area as an autonomous urban ecosystem that works in combination with other open air spaces of the city center, while facilitating the movement of pedestrians and cyclists, constitutes an overall urban concept ready to be applied to the city centers of other Greek cities, as fragmentation and lack of overall approach of the open air spaces is a characteristic phenomenon of the Greek urban reality. |
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