The proposal again gives residents a free open public space. A new square for the new urbanity created to the west of the city center of Thessaloniki, an old square that is rediscovered after an obscurity of more than half a century. The main intervention consists in the distinct separation of the square into the "upper" urban and the "outside" coastal area. The "upper" urban area is raised in a part of it by about one meter, forming a balcony (in the form of a wooden deck) on the trace of the walls (which appears in the trench of Kalapothaki Street). In the upper area there is a modular lightweight structure that functions as a market, but also alternatively as an exhibition space. One of its unit houses the information center. A refreshment stand is placed on the wooden deck. Under the dense foliage of the plane trees (in the summer) and the protective shell of the trees (additionally planted koutsoupies and plum trees), a place of recreation, information and viewing to the sea and Mount Olympus is created. It is an intermediate zone-pause between the "urban" environment of the upper region and the chaotic environment of the sea. The "outside" area provides a free space, open, suitable for gatherings, stopping, wandering, playing and swept by a colorful floor, made of stones and marbles properly processed. A floor that bears in the form of a wave of the sea, traces and memories of the history and civilizations that lived in the city. Words in many languages "emerge" engraved on the stones, writings that refer to the memory of the city, its multi-ethnic past, but also to the historical event of the genocide of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. Eleftherias Square has long been the main sea gate of the city. Its new configuration in combination with the pier forms a dynamic axis of free spaces of cultural character and constitutes both the western entrance to the city and the end of the coastal walk from the White Tower.

The project participated in 2014 at the 8th Internacional Biennial of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona.

Participation in a Panhellenic Architectural Competition
Client : Municipality of Thessaloniki
Location : Thessaloniki
Design : 2013
Design team : Manolis Votsis, Antonis Krasas, Kiki Grevia, Christina Parakente
Electromechanical study : Konstantina Papakonstantinou
Phytotechnical study: Katerina Goltsiou
Phototechnical design : L4A - Lighting for Architecture