Expo Grounds in Sustainable Design and Planning: The International Experience and Thessaloniki’s Perspective

Landscape Architecture Postgraduate Program, School of Architecture, Faculty of Technology (dir.) and School of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: The paper focuses on expo grounds projects and their contribution to the sustainability of the urban, suburban or natural environment with a resilient perspective in architecture, planning and development. The multidimensional socio-ecological and perceptual approach of landscape architecture is applied in a related PhD research, according to which the concept of sustainability, as the ability to last in time, promotes a resilient and adaptable framework in progress related to the landscape dynamics, physical and cultural ones, and space capability. Expos are mega-events of certain duration that their implementation initiates large-scale transformations in the host cities or their wider environment. They are directly related to the evolution, history and development of the place in each era, which affect and are influenced by all social, economic, physical and cultural conditions. They involve multiple temporalities, they are perceived as spaces dynamically changing in time: before, during and after the exhibition. As expo grounds we refer to spaces that host an expo and are designed in the urban, suburban or natural environment, always in relation to an urban center. International expo ground design practices are presented that conform with a sustainable perspective both in terms of the spatial footprint of the project, the selection of the appropriate site, the spatial organization, the ecological and social dimension in the design, the impact and the perspective it offers to the place. The case study of Thessaloniki International Fair is, as above, critically presented. We differently support the project for the city’s and its larger area sustainable perspective. We presume further development, both with the creation of the urban metropolitan green and cultural area in the center of the town, as needed and programmed through the town history, and also the emergence of the rich natural suburban areas of the western region.