A new interpretation of the theban ground

This diploma project aims to answer the following crucial question: which activities could be developed at the centre of contemporary greek towns, so as to take advantage of their own cultural and productive resources and reinforce their special character? Our case study is the town of Thebes and what really raises our interest is the way in which the agricultural production could be put at the centre of everyday life. Our main purpose is to increase citizens' interest on the agricultural tradition of their region and the contemporary perspective of agriculture, as well as to retain the new generation to the rural countryside. The scenario of the project is developed according to the following three functions: promotion - information - market, which are placed across the central pedestrian road of Thebes, creating an "agricultural net" consisting of three basic poles. More precisely, two poles are used as "Farmers' Market" and small scale production units, while the third one is used as a public New Farmers' Information Centre. The main principle of our proposition is based in the interaction of three different "ground qualities" coexisting in the composite theban land: a) the urban ground, being transformed into the main levels of pedestrian circulation, b)the archaeological - historical ground, c) the agricultural - natural ground, consisting of small urban agriculture plots. The building formes as a line, the atrium - either as a green square or as an archaeological site - , the spiral circulation around the atrium and the light metal construction of the canopies establish the basic connection among our building proposals.