ISSUE 116 – RETHINK ATHENS

Overview

The beginning of the decline of the centre of Athens must be sought in the 1980s, with the gradual exodus of the middle-class strata to the suburbs. From then on, after the brief, but successive, set-backs of the 1970s (energy crisis, Cyprus tragedy and restoration of democracy in Greece, ‘austerity’, etc.), the various, but compatible, under- takings in urban planning institutions of Stephanos Manos and Antonis Tritsis were foiled, and, with the General Building Regulations of 1985 and the multiple inclusions within the city plan, in practical terms and unhesitatingly the townscape of the Attica basin was rejigged, giving confirmation to the importance of building as a central branch of production and the quid pro quo system as its primary mechanism. This was a case of a delayed, mild, and definitive triumph of a modernism of a positivist character, completely purged of ideology (because of the dictatorship), and illustrated by apartment blocks free-standing on all sides, pilotis, open-plan interiors and exteriors, large cantilevers, large windows, new industrial materials, and comparatively advanced electrical and mechanical installations, within a given, steadily conservative framework which was specified by small properties, low permitted heights, the craft industry character of building production, the prevailing populism (in every sense), increasing disregard for the law, etc.

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