As opposed to the case of Ioannina, that is the typical new-town pattern, the master plan of the new University of Thessaly promoted the idea of urban renewal and rehabilitation of existing tobacco warehouses and other large industrial buildings of the period of 1920 till 1950 in Volos. The purpose was to create urban areas, in which university functions, population, and  architectural ‘gestures’ against the old buildings, become dominant and characterize distinctive parts of the urban tissue. The university network contained also small campuses in the perimeter of the city intended to house Schools with heavy laboratories. The desired goal aiming at a clear influence zone for each large pole of a university urban network, remained mostly a dream in a more or less unexpected development of the Volos urban tissue. The three initial poles of the University network, which have been organized during the first ten years of the university function, are: (a) a neoclassical house in the centre of the city, settling the first administration of the University, (b) the Papastratos tobacco warehouse complex, a well known trademark of the city of Volos on a dominant place of the sea-side quay, with a very interesting transformation project by M. Chryssomallidis, L. Spania, P. Tzonos, G. Heupel, X. Heupel et al., and (c) the Paparrigas machine factory and warehouse which is included in this catalogue.

Publications

• Edition by the University of Thessaly 1986

• Architecture in Greece, 36 (issue specialized on A.Kotsiopoulos’ work on university buildings) / 2002

• Α. Giakoumakatos,  “City and knowledge: university buildings and urban tissue» in: Architecture in Greece, 36, 2002, pp 58 - 64