The Municipal Committee of the Municipality of Thessaloniki approved the submission of a funded proposal entitled “Regeneration of Aristotelous Square and Axis”, within the framework of the “Central Macedonia” Program 2021-2027, with an indicative budget of 22.32 million euros.
According to an update from the Independent Department of Operational Planning and Monitoring of Development Programs, the call proposed to include the project concerns regeneration projects of squares, urban areas, axes, with the aim of increasing greenery, improving the quality and functionality of access to open public space, as well as the creation of new green – public space infrastructures with high environmental and social quality through the utilization of abandoned or inactive infrastructures (old barracks, etc.).
Additionally included:
– Projects for the utilization of small public-municipal areas (E> 500 sq m.) with the aim of shaping them as green infrastructures that will locally reduce the intensity of the urban heat island phenomenon in the logic of “pocket parks”.
– Intervention projects in public buildings, for the development of green roofs or horizontal green surfaces on the facades of buildings.
The purpose of the proposed project is the qualitative and environmental upgrade of the public space of the Aristotelous axis, including the homonymous square, the pedestrian sections of the street and the rectangular widening of the axis at the intersection with Egnatia Street, the promotion of the identity of the place, the revitalization of the public space with the principles of modern urban design and respect for its historicity, the removal of marginalization – where it is observed -, the attractiveness of the space and the stimulation of traffic.
It includes works of regeneration and remodeling of the Aristotelous Square and Street from Nikis Avenue to Egnatia Street, including the surfaces of the arcades located along the axis.
The main objectives of the regeneration are as follows:
-The acquisition of a modern urban public space in accordance with the principles of sustainable mobility, bioclimatic design and the “smart city”.
-The restoration of the character of the Aristotelous axis as a single perceptual whole.
-The highlighting of the axis’s identity by removing all the disparate elements that gradually accumulated with fragmented interventions in the public space.
-The integration of areas for stopping, walking, recreation, and gathering on the axis.
-The functional and aesthetic interconnection of the axis’s public space with the ground-floor galleries of the buildings that surround it.
-The improvement of the image of the city’s architecture by formulating proposals for the facades/window displays of the shops within the ground-floor galleries.
-The standard design of urban equipment is of high aesthetics and functionality.
-The use of innovative, high-quality, and low-maintenance building materials.
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