This project is a research into the sensory aspects of the architectural experience, ‘a way of looking at things’, things that form the environment’s atmosphere. By analysing and rediscovering the ‘genius loci’ of a significant historic building in Thessaloniki, (the Modiano Market), we intent to understand the place and its phenomena, in order to suggest a form of inhabitation.
During the investigation, we use creative and experimental methods and processes, such as diagrams and model making, in order to codify the inherent spatial qualities of the site. Those manipulations lead to the formation of an original ‘mechanism’ that traces the light and the wear. The final intervention answers to the performance of context and the attachment to place through a resolved building project – an inventive, experimental and innovative architectural proposition.
Therefore, the main goal is to reconstruct the various atmospheres of light and materiality. This is feasible through the interaction of the artificial mechanism mentioned above with the diagrams of light and wear. As a result, four spaces are designed that address spaces of contrasting intensities. These spaces amplify the existing conditions of light and materiality and highlight three specific periods of daytime. Furthermore, a mesh is developed at an upper level filtering out the light while at the same time unifying the