Urban Interstices From No Man’s To Everyone’s Land

Abstract

Throughout the urban fabric there are spaces that have been emerged as the remnants of an open building process. These in between, interstitial spaces amongst the built environments are the result of various processes. Either as leftovers of open spaces derived from the unregulated building construction or as the demolished products that have been brought to the surface as uncovered areas. They are part of the city’s image, and yet they are standing there, humble and unnoticed. How many times have we passed by a crevice between two buildings, or by a non occupied plot with a weird shape and we didn’t even notice its existence? It is very interesting and at the same time fascinating to me the idea that these spaces are there, they exist, but they remain unseen. Even if they are appeared to be empty voids they have their own substance, given by the surrounding environment (Arnheim 2009). They have no identity considering the way they have been developed; instead, they seem to be able to accumulate a plethora of heterogeneous elements, rendering them as places capable of hosting diversities (Stavridis 2010). As a result, the main aim of this master thesis is an attempt to read the city through the lens of the urban interstices by primarily identifying them and then to discover potential functions that those spaces can accommodate. It is more about to creating a local network of common spaces, open to heterogeneous elements, not only addressed to the neighborhood but also to the broader area. Finally, a very essential part of this thesis is the connection with the country of my origin, Greece. This link is very important to me since Greece has been depleted by the economic crisis the past ten years and I have the chance to highlight the issues and the opportunities that crisis had caused and generated respectively to the society. For this purpose, the case study of this research takes place in Athens in order to understand the limitations and the tools being used and expressed through the spatial and the social features of the area.