Adaptive Redesign of Urban Industrial Landscapes: The Case of Komotini’s Technical Chamber Square, Greece

Deindustrialization has left many industrial buildings inactive, raising questions about their role in contemporary urban life. This article explores how semiotics and psychogeography can reframe such structures as dynamic architectural happenings, shifting emphasis from preservation toward social value and collective experience. This research focuses on Komotini, Greece, where the Technical Chamber Square is reinterpreted through references to the adjacent Tobacco Warehouse. By integrating architectural traces of the past into new recreational and sporting functions, this study demonstrates how heritage can be embedded into everyday practices. Methodologically, this research employs qualitative approaches, including demographic and historical analysis of Komotini’s urban and industrial development, alongside psychogeographic drifting walks. Twenty interviews were conducted with local business owners, residents, and visitors, as well as psychogeographic walks, generating insights into how communities interact with industrial heritage. The findings indicate that semiotics and psychogeography are effective tools for activating public spaces near former industrial sites, enabling the built environment to be understood as a layered record of successive interventions. The study concludes that adaptive redesign offers designers a methodology that can embed industrial fragments into vibrant public realms that sustain diverse communities, catalyze local economies, and honor historical identity through lived practices.