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Layers of the old Piraeus station: connecting stories, place and data in Daring Cities

We can hardly hear each others’ voice as we head West in the Piraeus port. On our right, tall buildings loom over us, echoing the noise of the traffic on the left. Trapped between the infinite flow of cars and the towers overlooking the port, it feels as if we walked the tightrope in the surrealistically narrow strip of public space towards a couple of trees that forced their way through the concrete pavement. Behind the trees, the station building. 

The architects accompanying our group open the gate and suddenly an oasis opens up before us. Behind the gates, a long wall and the station building, that has been abandoned for over a decade, a stretch of grass, weeds and trees spontaneously growing out of the contaminated soil in every possible direction cover the rails that no longer lead anywhere.

As our group traverses the field behind the station, slowly balancing our steps around the abandoned railway tracks, we all think about the future of this area. Public servants from Altea, Den Helder, Dunaújváros, Kragujevac, Olomouc and Ravenna all recognize the sense of freedom and indetermination that this terrain vague evokes. They simultaneously think of the railway stations turned into bars, recycling centres, community gardens and linear parks that we visited together in Paris and areas in their hometowns waiting for new uses and new stories.

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