The Case of the Thessalian Plain

About

The research proposal AGRITHES aims to investigate the link between rural heritage and communities in Greece with a focus on the architecture of food production as a built capital for future sustainable development in the Thessalian plain. The research envisions a multi systemic approach that spans from spatial planning at the regional scale, to the study of architectures that support agricultural activity, and it ends with the engagement with local communities. The attempt will be to bring together urbanistic discipline with humanistic studies (rural and territorial heritage) and urban commons (participatory approach) with the collaboration with expertise in the field (University of Padua, IT, and Commonspace, GR).

The research will be developed in three phases: the first phase is the spatial analysis of the Thessalian field to understand the historical evolution and the actual territorial configuration with a focus on mapping the architectures of food production; during the second phase we will select three case-studies (settlements) to analyse in detail the spatial organization of those architectures, their actual condition and how they work; in the third phase, we will organize some workshops with the involvement of the local community to get more data and planning possible sustainable development.

The research will produce three forms of deliverables: a scientific book on rural heritage and architecture of food production, planning directives for sustainable bottom-up developments, and a public exhibition (maps, photos, drawings, videos, etc.).

The innovations of the projects reside in 1) building a knowledge of peripheral agricultural territory thought the lens of the “diffuse city”, 2) introducing the study, categorization and evaluation of the architectures of food production in Greece,

3) envisioning new forms of sustainable development in agrarian context based on rural heritage as a social, economic, cultural and human capital.