Planning the cultural and social reactivation of urban open spaces: the case of West Wall of Thessaloniki

Abstract

The aim of this paper is the study of cultural and social planning for the reactivation of urban open spaces. I examined the terms of urban cultural landscapes, cultural geography and cultural economy. Then, I analyzed different forms of cultural and social policy applied to urban landscape architectural projects and I described a series of examples and their relation with the cultural and social led urban regenerations respectively. The theoretical background defined the methodology of cultural and social reactivation of urban open spaces. Furthermore, this methodology, was applied to the West Wall of Thessaloniki, aiming at the cultural stimulation of the area through the social engagement of all groups that co-exist in the surroundings. The study is presented through landscape architectural drawings, which denote all key-terms transformed into spatial proposals.