diploma project
supervisors: Nelly Marda, Androniki Miltiadou
team: Andreas Anagnostopoulos, Marina Mersiadou, Giorgos Michailidis
National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture
2018-2019


Currently, the scavengers’ market takes place in a 2500m² site in the middle of nowhere. This wasteland looks like a ‘logistics landscape’ that sprawled and finally settled between housing isles, horticultural sites and natural elements, vast forms that dominated the city’s scale. Every Sunday though thousands of people gather for the scavengers’ markets, making this land temporarily urban. According to members of the their union, their weekly market needs to be established as an Athenian flea market. They need a permanent home, in the commercial center of Athenss, equipped with storage facilities easily accessible to scavengers, along with an office to facilitate legal communication with authorities and advocate for their labor rights.

MINION used to be the first shopping mall in Athens. After a massive fire in 1980 and subsequent bankruptcies, it finally closed in 1994. Since then, this 14,000m² building has remained unused public property. Its ground floor, spanning 2000m², sits as a void in the heart of Athens, adjacent to Omonia square. The pedestrian streets surrounding the building lack public activity but appear to offer an ideal infrastructure for the scavenger’s market. Similar to how this market enlivens the harsh landscape of Elaionas, it has the potential to activate this vast urban void. Thus, this building is conceived as public space.

Incorporating the most densely populated land uses of the neighborhood into the building’s public program would ensure better integration of the flea market into the area. The tool for vertically expanding public space is the ramp, which occupies the internal unbuilt space within the Athenian building block. It shares characteristics with a street, providing a smooth transition between public spaces and floors, remaining uncovered, and exposed to weather conditions.

The ground floor serves as the common ground between the city and the building, the public and the less public. The scavenger’s flea market densifies public space, occupying almost the entire ground floor and both adjacent pedestrian streets. Urban amenities such as street lights, trees, benches, tents, loading areas, and storage spaces make this ground suitable for the flea market. Additionally, businesses such as a hair salon, food vendors, coffee shops, and other amenities ensure that public space remains active even when the market is closed. The scavenger’s market expands onto the 1st and 2nd floors, where an upcycling/second-hand market, a lab, and the Scavengers’ Union are also located.

The ramp/street culminates in a public square 15m above the ground, on the 3rd floor. This public floor hosts part of the scavenger’s market and includes amenities such as food canteens, coffee kiosks, tables, picnic benches, large trees, and tall shrubs. Above the public square, two light volumes are constructed around the two existing elevator/staircase shafts, dedicated to more private uses: a 500m² flexible space for temporary events/activities and 1000m² for housing. The growing popularity of inner-city living emphasizes the importance of hybridity in cities, where the coexistence of residential and public spaces is more sustainable. Demand is increasing for small apartments with shared facilities. Therefore, the 1st housing floor is divided into 8 35m² single apartments, while the 2nd floor is organized into 2 large co-living apartments.

The 3rd floor serves as both an infrastructural and structural system, providing mechanical installations and soil to the elevated public square while supporting two CLT (cross-laminated timber) volumes. This structural floor consists of 3m high trusses standing on the existing concrete building. Both new volumes resemble acrobats; they must be light and carefully positioned on very specific axes/points.