ConfEx Park – Thessaloniki, Greece

Bearer of twenty-three-centuries of history and crossway between the East and the West, Thessaloniki is facing the historical opportunity to redevelop a crucial part of its city centre, and to turn it with this operation into a vibrant international business hub and tourist attractor.

The project has been conceived in order to meet the city’s expectation and provide Helexpo a powerful urban device, necessary to mediate and strengthen multiple scales of interaction. In the project the area plays the role of a connecting link between various urban actors and typologies: the mountain and the sea, the East and West parts of the city, the large structures surrounding the plot. The project site is transformed to an architectural catalyst, where history, economy and sustainability could work together in harmony providing a place where local, urban and international flows could cohabit.

Specifically, the meticulous urban re-stitching operation carried out on what is currently an urban void, will make the project an attractor of daily and local life, capable of restructuring the disconnected urban tissues that now surround the site. This pedestrian flow, thanks to the new urban central park and related spaces, will represent the new central attractor of Thessaloniki, converging public urban life. Finally, the exhibition and welcoming spaces will make the city an
international business and tourist destination, worthy of its rich and multicultural history.
Thessaloniki will be a greener, more attractive, and welcoming city. A place ready to face the challenges of the 21st century

Project Team
Leonidas Trampoukis, Eleni Petaloti, Zoi Eleftheriadi, Miltiadis Christodoulakos
Partner Architects
Lina Ghotmeh Architecture, LAN Architects
Consultants
Vogt Landscape Architecture, Systematica SRL, Tractebel Engineering S.A., Papargyris Kardoula Associates – Structural Engineers, Melcon Engineering
Awards
2^nd  Prize