What I can see

This complex had been a flour mill for about 60 years. Today, it operates as a multipurpose venue for various events, including festivals, and it also hosts a summer cinema during the summer months. The former flour mills, machine and carpentry workshops, warehouses and utility areas have been converted into exhibition spaces, concert venues, an amphitheatre and a café. There is also an outdoor bar, a small wooden carriage in which a radio station operates, Varotsou Square with the sculpture of Kostas Varotsos and a carriage of the legendary Orient Express (Paris-Istanbul, 1929), in which prominent personalities of literature, arts and politics boarded. The wide pedestrian street is the cohesive element of the buildings and their functions. The stone building retains its architectural style, with its openings bearing decorative frames. Three horizontal lines are visible on the north facade. These are the traces of the floors. The flour mill unit was built next to the commercial rails and very close to the city’s port.

What I can't see

The flour mill produced 60 tons of flour daily and was built by refugee businessmen Georgios Hatzigiannakis and Miltiadis Altinalmazis. After the closure of the business, a group of businessmen decided to turn it into a multi-purpose venue for cultural events. The restoration, designed by Nikos Stefanidis, was awarded by Europa Nostra, it was the exemplar for similar renovations with a change of use in Greece, and some of the buildings have been listed by the Ministry of Culture. It was the only private space that was included in Thessaloniki’s nomination file for European Capital of Culture. Later, other unharmonious elements were added to the complex. The equipment of the flour mill was preserved until the fire that broke out in 2004, which destroyed a large part of the multipurpose complex. Today, the damage has been largely repaired. In most of the industrial units of the interwar period we can distinguish a new typology, which includes continuous openings on the surfaces for better ventilation and lighting of the working areas. The transition from steam to electricity allowed the free planning, upgrading and rational layout of the spaces and thus simple single volumes of reinforced concrete buildings were constructed. However, in cases where the machines were standardised within the factory, traditional materials, such as stone and wood, were preferred. This complex is one of these cases. “Mylos” has hosted many artists such as Patti Smith, Cesaria Evora, Nina Simone, Robert Plant, Eric Barton, Rainign Pleasure, Nick Cave and many more.

Info

• Address: 56 G. Andreou St.
• Phone: +30 2310 551836, 504014
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Website: http://www.mylos.gr/

Bibliography