Résumés > Vaso TROVA_Du rejet à la protection. Le cas du camp de réfugiés de N. Ionia à Volos.

Vaso Trova

Professor, Dept. of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Volos

Between 1921 and 1924 approx. 13.000 refugees arriving from Asia Minor settled in Volos. The Refugee Rehabilitation Committee created a settlement in a barren piece of land at the outskirts of the city. Krafsidonas stream became a symbolic and geographic boundary between the refugees and the locals. Until 1947, when Nea Ionia was established as a separate community, the place was referred merely as “the settlement”. The different form of the new neighborhood, the density of the population, the deficiencies of infrastructure, the different culture exacerbated their distinction in relation with the rest of the local inhabitants.

Since then, we have witnessed a gradual change of the perception of the settlement and its community. The spatial differences which created the original distinctions (scale, typology, materials) are being considered merits nowadays as they are considered to constitute a “traditional” environment. Refugee culinary practices have become a part of the identity of the whole city. Proposals ranging from conservation of individual buildings to transforming a part of the settlement to open-air museum are balancing between protection and reconstruction of the past.