The 4th Staff Training Visit of WP2 started at the Department of Architecture, Polytechnic School, University of Thessaly in Volos with a welcoming by the Dean of the School, prof. Kostas Manolidis, and a presentation of the history of the Department by Prof. Vaso Trova. It followed a presentation of the urban history of Volos by Prof. Vaso Trova, focusing on the processes of urban regeneration and reuse of industrial heritage –with a mention of the role of the University in this process. After that, the program foresaw Tour I, focused on abandoned spaces. The first stop was at the Layers of Permanence worksite, with a guided tour by Prof. Maria Vrontissi (UTH). The worksite is the outcome of an Erasmus+ program that took place at our department in April 2024on the theme of circular economy, reuse of materials, construction, and reuse of abandoned buildings. After that,we moved along the Krafsidonas river, that has water only during spring/summer. The river flooded during the 2023 Daniel and Elias storms, causing much damage to the surrounding areas. Some of the effects of the floodings around the river are still visible. The river is an example of an underused and almost abandoned urban infrastructure. Then, it followed the visit to Palia, the old city of Volos up on a small hill. We visited the abandoned areas inside the 19th-century urban fabric that present relics ofthe byzantine and Turkish city into urban voids. Prof. Trova describedthe urban palimpsest of the city, and how it had been transformed in time. The trip concluded withthe visit of the complex of Tsalapata, an industrial building reused as Museum of Bricks, that hosted also UTHadministrative offices, commercial and cultural activities. Flooded in September 2023, today looks asan abandoned space. An employee of the museum described the history of the building and the museum that unfortunately was impossible to visit.

Due to high temperatures, the Ministry of Culture closed the archaeological sites and did not allow guided tours, so the planned visit to the Archaeological Site of Dimitriada with P. Triantafillopoulou, archeologist of the Minister, was canceled. The site of Dimitriada presents some features similar to the selected area of the September workshop in Skopje: it is a large archaeological site at the edge of the city, some of its parts are embedded in the sparse urban fabric, and an aqueduct –although only its bases remain –is also visible from the main road. Due to the climate circumstances, we changed the program we visited the ArchaeologicalMuseum of Volos, that containsalsoinformation andlarge relicts from Dimitriada, in order to provide an introduction to our guests about the archaeological remains in Volos.Beforethe visit, we had the chance also to have a walking along the whole Volos waterfronts that presents a series of public and pedestrian spaces, and we walked also along the abandoned railway that was linking Volos to Mt. Pelion.In the afternoon session,we met again at the meeting room of the International Relation Office and we discussed the Agenda for the Summer School in Skopje and we defined the assignment that will be given to the students.We set arrival and departure dates, formation of groups (when groups will be formed and how many students for each group), working hours, daily assignments, tools to be used, lectures and presentations,and final deliverables.

The Staff Training Visit ended with a morning meeting on Thursday for conclusion and wrap-up, with final planning of the workshop in Skopje in September. The meeting ended up with a walk along Volos waterfront, a visit of the port and of the Rectorate Building, another reused industrial building.