The proposal aims to the creative restart of people, objects and buildings whose role in the modern society seems to have expired. The chosen building is an abandoned concrete skeleton in the center of Thessaloniki. Reused object are modified to construct the walls of the building to convert it into a shelter for homeless. The basic philosophy of the construction is the reuse of objects, the “Do-It-Yourself” construction, the self-management of the shelter and the permanency.
The area is characterized by intense activity during day and night, a variety of architectural styles and the lack of housing, that makes it easier to integrate an alternative use such as this shelter. The designed homeless commune balances between existing shelters or homeless reception centers and homeless people’s makeshifts, examples of which are found in the building.
The materials used for the exterior walls are: l)plastic water pipes combined with car’s windshields that allow the lighting, 2)pallets in combination with nylon, 3)container with openings of collected glass and windows, 4)newspapers covered with pieces of car’s sheet metal, 5)carton tubes of different sizes, 6)tires with nylon, 7)sides of crates attached on a grid made from vertical rail tracks. The windows of the rooms are made from compressed bottles which are joined together in a translucent grid. The interior walls are made with a wooden frame filled with a grid of posters or magazines or vertically-placed bottles, from a composition of cabinets and from compositions of stacked wood.
The main uses enclosed are: dorm floors, kitchen-dining floor, health care and counseling services, appropriately designed floors for recreation use and the necessary auxiliary facilities. These uses are expressed through the facade by different materials and construction methods, that meet the requirements of each space.


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