FELLOWS

Elli Roma - Athanasiadou

2017/18 Thessaloniki

Elli is an urban planner and researcher who lives in Thessaloniki. Having studied urban planning and regional development and having a master’s degree in cartography, Elli explores the social and structural aspects that form public space through her interdisciplinary academic background.

She has five years of experience engaging in projects regarding urban planning, which she acquired while working in technical companies and preparing bachelor’s and master’s assignments. She has also, engaged herself in placemaking workshops and deepened her knowledge in the do-it-yourself culture. Her volunteering work in Imagine Thessaloniki 2014 and in Open House Thessaloniki 2016 were key factors for further pursuing a career in urban social-culture.

Elli is particularly interested in place identity, placemaking and participatory planning. Convinced that the use of public space is indicative of the societal and cultural structure, she is committed to make it approachable, inclusive and hospitable.

Project Title

CityScale

The mini project consisted of three parts:

a) CityScale Staircase: a public intervention about raising awareness, developing audience and measuring how inclusive Bremen is. The steps/questions examine how privileged someone is using public space. People could step up as many steps as the negative answers they could give (which meant they never encountered a particular obstacle), standing on a staircase that was the metaphorical reflection on how privilege affects the feeling of familiarity in public space. This intervention place twice; in the city center and at Kulturzentrum Lagerhaus.

b) CityToolkit: creation of a placemaking methodology, combining strategies against urban fear and placemaking techniques. It is applied on a neighborhood level. The methodology milestones were: the staircase intervention, “CityScale” workshops, a placemaking observation game for residents to evaluate the building facades, the street and the overall neighborhood regarding safety issues and propose solutions, design the collectively selected solutions and implementation.

c) Αισθήσεις/Aesthiseis: an event combining the four Bremen fellows’ projects.

Host Institution

Kulturzentrum Lagerhaus

Kulturzentrum Lagerhaus e.V. is a location open to urban culture innovation processes and project ideas. It was occupied 35 years ago by various cultural grassroots initiatives and the former warehouse building was developed into a living center for culture.