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HEBRARD URBAN MASTERPLAN |
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THE TRANSVERSAL AXIS: the urban development following the "great fire" of 1919 which destroyed the entirety of the city centre resulted in the most decisive restructuring of the city factory. The project of the planning committee, headed by the French architect E. Hebrard was based on the model of a monumental axis. According to the Beaux-arts tradition as well as the theories of the "City beautiful" that prevailed on the development of American cities in the 20th century.In that, Hebrard was the perfect representative of colonial urban planners called up on to the cities of the future around the Mediterranean, in the Middle East or in Asia.The backbone of Hebrard's scheme became a transversal axis, which never existed before in Thessaloniki. The axis project assembled the central functions and institutions in combination with important monuments.Nevertheless Hebrard knowledge as archaeologist decided him to locate the axis precisely over the centre of the Greek agora. Confirmations of the "mistaken axis" have come from other archaeological finds in the area.The implantation of Hebrard plan was interrupted when the finding of the ancient agora suspended the construction of the court justice. The suspension of the plan's implementation created a gap in the centre of the city. |
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ARISTOTELOUS AXIS: the principal cross axis is located in the geometrical centre of both the intramural city and the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki. It consist of a complex of public open spaces that make up the framework around which the urban layout of the historic centre is organised, together with the main central functions and some of the most important monuments in the city's history [ancient agora...] It consists of a succession of rectangular spaces, for the most part symmetrically arranged around a NE-SW axis at right angles to the sea front. The axis is opening up the city to the sea by offering a perspective of Mount Olympus. Aristotelous square is one extremity of the axis- the important connection between the urban factory and the coastal front of over 50 km, linking the harbour, the city and the airport. This space will turn into an important link between two urban development axis- the waterfront and the civic axis.Its total length is 1070m and the width varies between 30m on Aristotelous Street and 264m across the square in front of the ancient agora. The highest point in Kassandrou Street is 45m above the sea level. |
