APPROACHES

Archontoula Papoulakou, archaeologist in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture

Many buildings from past eras need a modern approach to restoration as well as an effort to integrate them in modern life. Is however this re-integration of monuments in modern urban life feasible in Greece today? Or the interventions and the restoration approaches followed are considered as “actions of salvation” only, and not as actions that integrate the buildings in a naturally life of change?

Costas Tsiampaos, Dr. architect NTUA

Ο αρχιτέκτονας-πολεοδόμος Κωνσταντίνος Δοξιάδης οραματίστηκε και κατασκεύασε τη δεκαετία του 1970 το δικό του πρότυπο οικισμό, μία "οργανωμένη γειτονιά", το Απολλώνιο στο Πόρτο Ράφτη. Στον οικισμό αυτό, εκτός από τις κατοικίες και ένα σπίτι που ανήκει στον ίδιον, υπάρχει ένα ανοιχτό θέατρο κλασικής μορφής, μία βυζαντινή εκκλησία, μία κεντρική πλατεία και το αντίστοιχο πνευματικό κέντρο.

Evi Dalla, topographer

Karditsa is the first city in Greece that incorporated in citizen’s every day life the bicycle. Bicycle is the main way of transportation for the citizens. That habit stimulanted scientists to plan and make practice the first net of cycle ways in Greece.

Ath. Aravantinos, D. Kontoargiris, K. Seraos Special collaboration: Th. Vlastos

Athens is considered a worldwide cultural centre, with landmark the rock of Acropolis and with an emblematic urban expression. Such an urban expression is essential in modern culture as well. It is therefore necessary to promote emblematic urban forms and functions, which could contribute in creating culture, such as the region that constitutes the Athenian Trilogy (Academy of Athens, University, National Library).

Kostas Tsiambaos, Dr. architect NTUA

This paper highlights the relationship between Constantinos Doxiadis’ dissertation – which analyses architectural space in ancient Greece using a system of visual angles – and Pikionis’ drawings where he uses the same system of visual angles in order to organize architectural space.

Agni Petridou, architect - town planner Nicosia Master Plan, Cyprus

In 1978 the representatives of the two communities of Nicosia agreed to prepare a common flexible master plan for the city, capable of addressing the planning problems relating to the existing situation and at the same time adaptable in the case that political circumstances would allow the development of the city as one entity.

Ένα ντοκιμαντέρ για τα προβλήματα του ιστορικού κέντρου της Αθήνας

Nikolas Mantzaris, environmentalist - town planner

The article deals with the problems caused by the high concentrations of pigeons in urban areas. Such problems arise in almost every major city, in Greece and abroad. The adverse effects due to their high concentration are of several forms.

Maria Papaioannou, agricultural

The city of Athens has a variety of vegetation types in its parks, roads and sidewalks. This vegetation is mainly consisted of native Mediterranean species, which have been adapted to the conditions of the Mediterranean climate, especially the long, dry and hot summer. Additionally, in certain places, other non-native, «imported» species can be found which were introduced in the past and have now become part of the city vegetation. The balance between the native and non-native species has nowadays changed and this might have certain ecological implications as far as foreign species are sometimes very demanding in terms of additional energy needed for their survival.

Zetta Antonopoulou, archaeologist, MSc N.T.U.A.

The Zappeion Garden constitutes a historical site, full of memories from the first years of Athens as the Greek state’s capital. In its beautiful grounds there are important monuments of Modern Greek sculpture, loaded with history and symbolisms, with an intense presence and a variety, representative as well as didactic.

Andreas Vlamakis, physic Katerina Theodorakopoulou, archaeologist

Monuments that constitute part of our global cultural heritage are also part of an important ‘collateral damage’ of the environmental disaster, often forgotten or ignored. This disaster arises as a result of both, large scale environmental issues such as climate change, as well as problems arising on a local geographical scale, such as atmospheric pollution of the cities.

Demetres Zygomalas, architect, MSc in conservation of historic buildings and complexes

Aristotelous Square is now in a position to teach a valuable lesson regarding both the kind of interventions that are compatible with historic public space enhancement and the procedures through which such a goal ought to be pursued.

Chrysostomos Theodoropoulos, architect

The coming alteration of a modernistic building in the centre of Athens (Doxiadis’ Office Building) is raising questions about keeping the building’s integrity intact or not. In my opinion it rather raises crucial issues about the way we are debating with our past.

Vaso Kostoglou-Eleni Mitsi, architects

Από τον 19ο αιώνα έως το 1950 πολλές και ενδιαφέρουσες πολεοδομικές πρωτοβουλίες και πολιτικές αναπτύχθηκαν στην Ελλάδα, με λιγότερη ή περισσότερη επιτυχία. Δυστυχώς στα μεταπολεμικά χρόνια ατόνησαν και κυριάρχησε η νοοτροπία του αποσπασματικού, του τυχαίου και της γρήγορης και ιδιοτελούς "ανάπτυξης". Το αστικό τοπίο της Θεσσαλονίκης εκφράζει με τις μεταμορφώσεις του τις αντιφατικές αυτές προσεγγίσεις.

Βάσω Ρούσση, Δρ αρχιτέκτων μηχανικός

Ο αστικός χώρος όπου χτίζεται η κατοικία στην Αθήνα εξαπλώνεται κυρίως κατά το μεσοπόλεμο, οπότε και αρχίζει διαρκώς αυξανόμενη η παραγωγή κατοικίας. Η πόλη εξαπλώνεται προς όλες τις κατευθύνσεις, αλλά κυριαρχεί η ανοικοδόμηση ένθεν και ένθεν της Πατησίων.

Anthony Maniatis, lecturer of the Cultural Environment and New Technologies Department of Ioannina University

Tradition is a constitutional good to be protected by the State. Modern is in architecture an international rhythm, dating from the penultimate decade of nineteenth century. Postmodern constitutes a posterior movement of question, which combines elements of tradition and mainly the modern, without representing a «gentrification». It is suitable for the upgrade of tradition, which is renewable and polymorphic.

Georgia Goumopoulou, architect

The city is a remarkable creation in which social structure combines with natural and artificial features. Buildings, the environment and open spaces interact and work together in both a complimentary and competitive way. Human relations and social structures, as well as quality of life, can be found in the urban environment.

Mika Michalaki, architect

The lack of integrated planning and the unorganized and without programming expansion of the cities have created many problems that downgrade the quality of life for the residents and lead to the complete destruction of the natural environment. One of the scarce ways of intervention in order to restore the natural elements in cities today, is the creation of planted roofs.

Dimitri Philippides, professor emeritus, National Technical University of Athens

Gazochori is the name for a workers’ village, which was formed around the Gas Factory of Athens, built in 1857. Lacking all ‘basic’ amenities, Gazochori soon became notorious for its lack of sanitary conditions.

Valia Georgiadis, architect ΜΑ Housing and Urbanism

This study is mainly concerned on the way economical and urban growth is linked with the innovation sector. The present study is an attempt to analyze the special social or economical factors that make an environment appropriate for knowledge transfer and to discuss the role of innovation in what concerns future urbanization of places and economical evolution of cities.

Eliza Papadopoulou, MSc structural engineer Georgios M. Sariyannis, professor, National Technical University of Athens

The refugees of 1922 settled all along Athens, almost everywhere, but mostly at west districts, like Kokkinia, Drapetsona, Koridallos. They also settled at Nea Philadelphia, Nea Ionia, Kaisariani, Vyronas, Ymittos and Kallithea (see map). Their settlement was basically organised and administered by two organisations and a Ministry (Ministry of Social Care).

Polyxene M. Kosmake, architect, Professor, National Technical University of Athens Demetres Kl. Loukopoulos, architect, Lecturer, Greek Open University

The possibility of green complexes development can be provided by urban open spaces, recycle products of urban area, laid throughout the city web. Pocket parks which consist the base of a green complex is a new category of urban green areas, which lies between neighbourhood park and private garden.

Nikos Vatopoulos, journalist

In Athens, some noteworthy buildings, samples of the Athenian architecture of Modernism, of the period between 1930 and 1970, are still preserved. Most of them are buildings of multiple ownership (urban apartment buildings) and a few are houses or public buildings.

Βάσω Ρούσση, Δρ αρχιτέκτων μηχανικός

Ο αστικός χώρος όπου χτίζεται η κατοικία στην Αθήνα εξαπλώνεται κυρίως κατά το μεσοπόλεμο, οπότε και αρχίζει διαρκώς αυξανόμενη η παραγωγή κατοικίας. Η πόλη εξαπλώνεται προς όλες τις κατευθύνσεις, αλλά κυριαρχεί η ανοικοδόμηση ένθεν και ένθεν της Πατησίων (συνέχεια)

Athina Papadopoulou, architect - conservator, Nicosia Master Plan

Ιn March 2006 the project Restoration of the Omeriye Ottoman Baths, Nicosia, Cyprus was awarded the top prize in the category Conservation of Architectural Heritage of the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards.

Eleni Maistrou, architect, associate professor, National Technical University of Athens

The historic settlement of Hydra, which the Ministry of Culture has several times listed as an area under protection, owes its cultural value to the historic and architectural value of its buildings, combined with the exceptional natural landscape. Yet, during the last years, it is being destroyed due to its unconditional development.

Cleopatra Theologidou, architect, University of Thessaly

The extensive interventions that have been carried out recently on buildings belonging to the contemporary architectural heritage in Greece bring up the discussion about the design and the methods applied for the restoration and the adjustment of these buildings to new uses.

Vasilis Ganiatsas, architect, Ph.D, ass. professor N.T.U.A.

In situ preservation and enhancement of archaeological sites in contemporary cities manifests in a most eloquent way the values we ascribe to our archaeological heritage in our cities vis a vis their contemporary and future development.

Vasilis Ganiatsas, architect, ass. professor, N.T.U.A.

The project refers to the design and implementation of an archaeological park at the site of the main gates of classical Piraeus. The project had been awarded 1st prize at a national architectural competition and is currently under construction.

Eleni Portaliou, associate professor, National Technical University of Athens

Athens and its broader region have developed through continuous expansion, having sprawled throughout the Attica basin. Spatial Planning (at regional and urban level), as a proper tool for the control of development and for safeguarding the city’s public spaces, the natural landscape, the farmland and the forests, was substituted with limited and fragmentary regulations until the 1980s.

Ελισάβετ Ηλιοπούλου, αρχιτέκτων

Η διαδρομή του πρώην 401 Στρατιωτικού Νοσοκομείου μέσα στον χρόνο, τα ιστορικά γεγονότα που σημάδεψαν την ύπαρξή του και οι ιστορικές, κοινωνικές, επιστημονικές και οικονομικές συνθήκες που επικρατούσαν από το 1882 έως τα χρόνια του Μεσοπολέμου παρουσιάζονται στο κείμενο. Ακολουθεί η αρχιτεκτονική αξιολόγηση των κτηρίων όπου περιγράφεται η οικοδομική εξέλιξη, τα μορφολογικά χαρακτηριστικά, τα δομικά υλικά και η χρονολόγηση των κτηρίων και ο περιβάλλων χώρος.

Vasso Nikolakopolou, president of the Cultural Union “Panathenaia”

I live at the centre of Athens, at the Psirri district, since 1973. It was at that time, when most of the neo-classical buildings were knocked down, probably because they were not proclaimed “preservables” and thus protected by the Ministry of Culture...