20/07/2025
Glad to be part of 11th INTERNATIONAL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION 2025 by UPAS / SALA Udruženje pejzažnih arhitekata Srbije with the course LD104 Landscape Planning and Design of Suburban, Rural and Natural Landscapes, Academic year 2022-2023 and the project "Planning and Design the suburban Landcape West of Thessaloniki; Encounters with a Sleeping Beauty".
Students: Rallis Abatzidis, Anna-Maria Giannopoulou, Pavlos Darmanin, Elpida Iakovidou, Stella-Triantafilli Kalogirou, Dimitra Karavasili, Ioanna-Dimitra Karametou, Antigoni Kriari, Vasilios Konstas, Theodora Kotoula, Chrysoula Mantzaridou, Konstantinos Boufidis, Evangelia Oikonomou, Alexandra Papanagari, Antonia -Maria Perouli, Ioannis Polatidis, Nikolaos Printzios, George Tatazidis, Elpiniki Tzagaki, Ioannis Hotokouridis
Tutors: Ioannis Tsalikidis, Eleni Athanasiadou, Anastasia Papadopoulou, Maria Lionatou
Narrative of project: In the quest for comprehensive planning, the LD104 course embarked a project on the west suburban region of Thessaloniki. 20 students and 4 tutors worked closely in order to identify major driving factors shaping a landscape unfolded as an amalgam; a former marshland, agriculture, an avian species sanctuary entitled Axios Delta National Park, a vibrant social fabric of numerous human settlements, inactive and active industry, mobility networks etc. Numerous encounters with this ‘sleeping beauty’ unfolded a landscape that has been shaped spatio-temporally not by top-down strategic planning but rather by numerous acts on different scales, by difference stakeholders and intensives. Students worked all together for a master plan and afterwards they deepened as smaller teams on 6 landscape units. The 6 months period of study taught profound lessons; you can’t just ‘box’ and ‘offer’ the living landscape within a predefined framework of a rigid masterplan, as planning takes time and deep understanding of the terrain. One must always have in mind, how shall this valley to the west of Thessaloniki define itself for future generations?