This design thesis constitutes a study on the contemporary metropolis, public space and the crisis of the iconic architectural object. It integrates the conclusions of my research thesis ‘Architecture as the City’, completed in Spring 2014.

The proposed intervention concerns a section of the city perpendicular to Patission Avenue, with a straight line, a public/private ‘carpet’, stretching along oa mile from ‘Agios Nikolaos’ metro station eastwards, up to Elikonas hill.

Four artifacts are inserted into this informal strip, a theater complex, a mediatheque, a commercial center, a sports center, along with housing as infill.

These artifacts are closely connected to the public ground. In each case different conditions of public and private space are created. The goal of the intervention is to free up space for common use by citizens and visitors alike, to create a sense of place in an otherwise flat area and enhance the topography of the area that is currently hidden underneath the stratum of modern development. A particular point of interest was to test the potential and dynamics of placing such artifacts on a standard vernacular grid, without essentially deviating from its inherent principles.