Regenerative territories – the case of Iasonos str.

The task was to propose an urban regeneration strategy for the neighbourhood Metaxourgeio-Kerameikos. Referring to the neighbourhood’s rich social and cultural diversity, this diversity is also observable spatially and typologically. In order to restore into a better state, we first had to find the most suitable way of understanding its complexity.
We found that its diversity could be understood through a differentiation and understanding of its territories. A territory can be understood as a stabilized assemblage (Dovey, 2010); while an assemblage, according to Deleuze and Guatarri (1972), is a complex gathering of objects, bodies, expressions, qualities and areas that come together in order to form new functions. Desire is the main force of an assemblage’s creation. Therefore, a territory is a delimited area that has both physical and non-physical elements that together produce a certain kind of order and identity. It can be implied that the above-mentioned elements of a territory are contained in uses and activities, since they include bodies, objects, expressions, qualities and areas. It is through the uses of this new overlapping territory, the network that they configure, the projection of the users into open space and the physical interven¬tions implied that Iasonos street can become a link that facilitates urban regeneration instead of a segregating border of a territory in decay. The transformation opportunities of this street guided us during the studio task.