The Case of Komotini’s Technical Chamber Square, Greece
Published in the journal Culture by MDPI, this article, co-authored by Varvara Toura together with Alexandros Mpantogias and Neslihan Saban, stems from their participation in a Panhellenic competition for the redesign of a public square in Komotini, a city in northern Greece, for which their project was awarded second prize in October 2025.
Abstract
Deindustrialization has left many industrial buildings inactive, raising questions about their role in contemporary urban life. This article explores how semiotics and psychogeography can reframe such structures as dynamic architectural happenings, shifting emphasis from preservation toward social value and collective experience. This research focuses on Komotini, Greece, where the Technical Chamber Square is reinterpreted through references to the adjacent Tobacco Warehouse.
By integrating architectural traces of the past into new recreational and sporting functions, this study demonstrates how heritage can be embedded into everyday practices. Methodologically, this research employs qualitative approaches, including demographic and historical analysis of Komotini’s urban and industrial development, alongside psychogeographic drifting walks. Twenty interviews were conducted with local business owners, residents, and visitors, as well as psychogeographic walks, generating insights into how communities interact with industrial heritage. The findings indicate that semiotics and psychogeography are effective tools for activating public spaces near former industrial sites, enabling the built environment to be understood as a layered record of successive interventions.
The study concludes that adaptive redesign offers designers a methodology that can embed industrial fragments into vibrant public realms that sustain diverse communities, catalyze local economies, and honor historical identity through lived practices.
Figure 10. (a,b) Industrial equipment used as an inspiration for urban furniture. Source: (a)
©Visitthraki.gr (b) Authors creation, ©Toura, Mpantogias, Saban, 2025.
Varvara Toura, Alexandros Mpantogias, Neslihan Saban. Adaptive Redesign of Urban Industrial Landscapes: The Case of Komotini’s Technical Chamber Square, Greece.Culture 2026, 2(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/culture2010002
Architect engineer and urban planner by training, I worked as an architect-urban planner in France and Greece, my country of origin, before starting a thesis at EHESS in 2017. The objective of my thesis, conducted under the supervision of Marie-Vic Ozouf-Marignier and defended in January 2023, was to question the emergence of new territorial policies in deindustrialized cities in France within the framework of sustainable city programs and participatory public policies. We can observe that in this context the new territorial policies succeed in revitalizing the economic and social tissue of these cities. The thesis developed a comparative approach of two redevelopment projects for deindustrialized sites in France, Ile-de-Nantes and the Docks-de-Seine in Saint-Ouen, focusing on the case studies of two urban projects representative of participatory public policies, both located in central districts of deindustrialized cities. The aim of the research was to propose new urban planning models for deindustrialized cities, within the framework of sustainable development, by making the connection between the urban renewal programs within these cities and the question of the preservation of their industrial heritage.
