The Present And The Future OfThe Greek Urban Landscape

HISTORY - URBANISM - RESILIENCE . 17th IPHS Conference, 2016

Based on literature and archival research along with specific plans, the study considers the different transformations of the Greek urban block in relation to street network, built and open space. Case studies such as Thessaloniki, Athens, Patra, Serres, offer the opportunity to highlight the evolution of the Greek urban block through representative examples of urban development in specific periods of Greek history: in the neoclassic city of the 19 th century, during the beginning of 20 th century, during the interwar period (1923-1940) and in the postwar city during 1950s and 1970s. The investigation focuses on the general historical framework connected to urban development, whereas specific masteplans showcase the practice of each period respectively. moreover, the study highlights parameters, which form, reform or transform the urban blocks, such as planning principles and design tools. The objective of this research is to analyze characteristics and qualities of the morphology of urban blocks in order to understand its importance in the organization of the city.

The aim of this paper is to study the evolution of urban hierarchies and the nature of urban growth processes in Greece from 1951 to 2011 using data provided by the Greek Statistical Authority. The paper delivers three series of results: firstly, when using an administrative definition of the city, the Greek cities converge towards a middle city-size population; secondly, when taking into account spatial dependence, the sizes of Greek cities still converge but this movement starts in the middle of the period, after 1981. In both cases, the preeminence of the Athens agglomeration slowly decreases; finally, the paper delivers evidence concerning the changes that affect urban demographical trends in Greece over the last decade. These changes can be related to the economic crisis and the profound socioeconomic upheaval that Greece has undergone since the beginning of the 21 st century.

Cultural and Religious Studies, 2017

The urban consciousness under foreign domination is a complex issue, especially when the reporting period is the 19th century, the century of great social, ethnic, and economic changes in Europe. The issue is further complicated in the case of the Balkans, during the latter period of Ottoman rule. But how did certain cities manage to emerge from rural or suburban routine and develop a European urbanity? An urbanity expressed itself as lifestyle (habits, costumes, entertainment), as art and as formation of the urban environment and architecture. The State pushed for modernization by the Great Powers, ethnic communities with parent countries seeking to differentiate themselves from their “backward” conquerors, economic opportunities through trade and new visual observations by penetration of European countries and companies: all this would create suitable conditions for an unprecedented urbanization. This shift in the quality of life was clearly expressed in the new architecture, which always continued, as ever, to reflect the cultural activity. The transition from vernacular architecture to historicism and eclecticism would capture the most characteristic moment of the beginning of urbanization in northern Greece.

Historein, 2023

Proceedings of the International Conference on Changing Cities III Spatial, Design, Landscape & Socio-economic Dimensions, 26-30 June 2017, Syros – Delos – Mykonos Islands, Gospodini, A (ed), Grafima Publications, Thessaloniki, Greece, ISBN 9786185271121, 2017

This work focuses on the relation between the process of morphogenesis and the evolution of social structure in modern Mediterranean cities using as case study the city of Athens. Specifically this paper takes into consideration the impact that the internal migration of the postwar period had on the formation of spatial and social structure of Athens. The effects of the war decade 1940-1950 on Greek society and economy were ruinous. Progressively a big part of the countryside population was moved to cities especially to the State's capital which became the core of the developmental activity owing to the central policies of the postwar governments. A rapid urbanization process took place within the next decades; changing both the spatial and social content of Athens. Here the basic question is how this bidirectional transformation was run. Furthermore; how the State managed the installation of newcomers? Did the newcomer's cultural practices played any role towards their social adjustment? How the social capital became a key factor for the migrant's installation and adaptation in urban environment. While dealing with the above questions; the argument that comes up is that the morphogenesis (architecture; urban expansion) was not related to a top-down strategy. On the contrary it contained bottomup elements; as migrants maintained an initiative role opposite and against the State. In addition; the dialectic between space and economy left its mark on the new founded districts; representing the dimensions of Athens' social structure.

2009

The phenomenon that has intensively been recorded in contemporary Greek urban reality is the observed deviation between built urban environment and the process of teaching urban planning in universities. The particularities of local architecture, products of the effort of adapting the peculiar urban landscape combined with the existing climatic conditions, are often ignored in order to create impressive elements (most times copies of international corresponding) aiming at superficial impressions than to function and duration. “Impression of the moment “often restricts urban formations to smoothly integrate within existing urban terrain and prohibits project to adequately adjust the existing environmental conditions. As soon as young students from architectural schools begin their profession as licensed architects, they realise the amount of legislative restrictions they have to face in order to adjust their practices to contemporary Greek urban status. Consequently, they are “trappe...

2011

This paper focuses on the physical landmarks of the Athenian past that dominate the historic environment around the Acropolis in order to examine the factors which prevented the construction of an integrated historic environment in Athens. It mainly focuses on how shifting ideologies from the early nineteenth century to the present have resulted in a gradual change from the focus on a monumental heritage to one concerned with the living historic city. It demonstrates that these ideologies have been influenced by the contradicting international, national and local desires that developed independently of one another; yet they have contributed to the contemporary diverse historic urban fabric.

Making Ancient Cities: Studies of the Production of Space in Early Urban Environments, edited by A. Creekmore and K. D. Fisher, 288-338. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2014

Perhaps the most striking development accompanying the emergence of the Greek city-state (ca. 1200-480 BC) was the appearance of new urban centers whose form, contents, and construction provided the most visible and effective means of creating, reinforcing, and symbolizing the social, political, and economic relationships that characterized the new polis system. Excavations at the site of Azoria (East Crete) have brought to light an unparalleled collection of architectural data, largely unobscured by later activities, that provides one of the best opportunities to study the architectural correlates of urbanization in the Greek world. This paper explores three levels of the built environment at Azoria - the domestic, the civic, and the urban - and demonstrates that the architectural landscape of the nascent city-state not only served to reflect the dramatic social and political developments that accompanied the emergence of the polis, but in effect, also functioned a.s an active agent in their creation.

MONU Magazine, 2013

Most approaches of compactness/openness-sprawling of contemporary cityspaces seem to focus either on urban form and land use structure or simply on the spatial impact of the changing social landscape of the post-fordist era. In this paper we seek to explore the composite effects of “the production of space” in peri-urban areas of the Wider Athens Area. It has been well documented that the Athenian cityspace is changing rapidly. Marked changes are evident in the transformation of both the social and the build-up landscape of the Athens Wider Urban Region. While the bulk of the population and of the build up area is still concentrated in the central urban areas and their immediate neighbours, giving the impression of territorial compactness, there are strong indications of a reshaping expansion process. This process is filtered through economic sectoral restructuring, a highly standardized and commodified housing market as well as large scale ‘regeneration’ –‘revitalization’ infrastructure projects. The main research and policy question is whether these changes lead to increasing or diminishing social segregation and/or territorial cohesion. What are its main characteristics, similarities and contrasts to the West-European and North-American examples? Urban analysis’ emphasis and its resulting categorizations are often related solely to differentiation of either the prevailing ‘densities’ and ‘land use mix’ or ‘where people live’, or on the occupational/sectoral restructuring of the urban labour force. The paper argues for an alternative way of looking at and of analysing socio-spatial differentiation in contemporary cityspaces. It focuses on an often-ignored component of urban development: the modes of articulation of the ‘occupational’/‘land use’ mix. The main argument, derived from a geographical ‘production of space’ approach, is that urban development is characterised by (gives rise to) considerable local differentiation in modes of articulation of the labour and land markets. This differentiation is the driving force of the reshaping of contemporary urban structures. More specifically on the demand side, local variety of residents’ socio-economic profile is related to wider changes in the occupational/sectoral composition of the urban labour force. On the supply side, investigation focuses on local specificities of land use dynamics. The mode of articulation of the supply and demand forces is investigated via a characteristic case-study of peri-urban settlements in the Wider Athens Area. This case study serves as illustration of the particularities of the development path of areas regarding social and territorial cohesion of the urban formation. The paper shows that the peri-urban areas include ‘fractals’ of the more compact cityspace of the Athenian urban area.‘Fractals’ of petty-trade and leisure activities, new industrial neighbourhoods, lower strata residential areas, higher-level strata ‘isolation’ zones. The Athenian ‘exopolis’ is not only ‘the city turned inside-out’ but it is also part of the ‘city turned outside-in’.