Modern architecture in Athens

The apartment building built between 1918 and 1919 by Alexandros Metaxas for Petros Giannaros.

The term πολυκατοικία (polykatoikia, literally "multiresidence") is used in Greek to denote every apartment building. One of the first, if not the first, apartment buildings in Athens was built in 1918–1919 by architect Alexandros Metaxas in an eclectic style for Petros Giannaros on Philellinon and Othonos Streets, adjacently to Syntagma Square. Thanks to the fact that this building was one of the first ones to be built with reinforced concrete, it was unexpectedly, as well as asymmetrically higher than the adjacent ones. This caused a fury and led to two royal decrees, one in 1919 and another one in 1922 that in the end set the height for buildings according to the width of the street they lay on, with a maximum height of 26 metres for wide streets.[1][2][3]

The changes that took place in Greek society after the defeat of Greece during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the ensuing population exchange between Greece and Turkey created different housing needs for the population, revealed how important the construction sector could be for the Greek economy, and influenced, as a result, the legal framework of the polykatoikia.

In 1929, two important laws concerning apartment buildings took effect.[1] The law about "horizontal property" (οριζόντια ιδιοκτησία) made it possible that many different owners own one apartment building, each by owning one or more apartment units. Theoretically, each apartment corresponds to a percentage of the original plot. The most important effect of this law was the practice of "αντιπαροχή" (antiparochì, literally "a supply in exchange"). With antiparochì, the owner of a plot, who can't afford to build an apartment building by himself, makes a contract with a construction company so that the latter will build the apartment building but keep the ownership of as many apartments as the contract states. Although during the interwar period the practice of antiparochì was limited, as the construction of most apartment buildings was financed solely by the original owners of the plot, antiparochì became the most common method for financing the construction of condominiums (polykatoikìes) from the 1950s onwards.[4]

Later in 1929 came into effect the first General Building Regulation. Most importantly, not only did it regulate the height and surface area of the buildings, but it also introduced innovations that their use came to characterize the modern style of the buildings of the era, such as the bay windows, or erkers (έρκερ), as they are known in Greek after the German term.[5]

Papaleonardou's apartment building, designed in 1925 by Kostas Kitsikis, incorporates Art Deco elements creating thus an eclectic style. In this building lived Maria Callas between 1937 and 1945.[6]

During the first two decades of the 20th century, Greek architecture failed to follow international trends, especially Art Nouveau and, to a lesser extent, Art Deco, or to produce an architectural style with consistent features that could act as a successor to Greek Neoclassicism.[7] As a result, buildings in Athens that can be characterized as 'Art Nouveau' are scarce. The tumultuous changes and poor economic state of the Greek society must be taken into account when studying this period.[8] Most architects of that period that built in Athens were conservative and late in adopting other non-classical European styles, often altering them and mingling them with classical motifs, creating thus an eclectic style.[9]

The building of Bank of Greece, designed in 1933 in a conservative simplified classical style.

During the last part of this period and under the influence of Anastasios Metaxas's work (1862–1937), most public buildings were built in a so-called "simplified classical" style (αφαιρετικός κλασικισμός), similar to "stripped classicism". Such buildings include classical ornamentation albeit in a much lesser degree;[10] Art Deco ornamentation also becomes much more common. Such buildings, with their imposing façades, usually emit grandeur and austerity. The most important building of this style is the Bank of Greece on Panepistimiou Street built between 1933 and 1938 by a team of architects led by Nikolaos Zoumpoulidis, Kimon Laskaris, and Konstantinos Papadakis. Although it is relatively lightly decorated, every ornament is classical in style and its façade is even reminiscent of the Greek parliament, designed in 1834.[11] Other buildings are the Athens University of Economics and Business on Patision Street designed in 1926 by Anastasios Metaxas,[10] and the General Accounting Office of Greece on Panepistimiou Street designed in 1928 by Emmanouil Lazaridis which incorporates Art Deco elements.[12]

Although Ioannis Metaxas's dictatorship (1936–1941) didn't forcibly impose an official architectural style, nor banned modern architecture, it awoke Greek society's conservative ideas and influenced, as a result, architecture. Public buildings were still built according to simplified classicism.[26] For example, the Municipal Market of Kypseli, which was inaugurated in 1937 by the dictator and was designed by architect Alexandros Metaxas (the two are unrelated), includes a classical cornice and small ionic capitals, despite the fact that it is a special-purpose building.[27]

Something that also changed significantly the appearance of Athenian buildings was the reduction of the maximum possible protrusion of the bay windows from 1.4 metres to 40 centimetres in 1937. Architect and professor at the NTUA Kostas Kitsikis had lobbied extensively for this change because he thought that builders and owners abused long bay windows in order to build as much surface area as they could, turning Athens into "a bad copy of German and Dutch cities."[28]

Two apartment buildings on Aigyptou Square, near Pedion Areos. Savvidis's apartment building (left) was designed in c. 1935 by Nikolaos Nikolaidis in a modern style.[29] The right apartment building was built in the 1950s in a "simplified classical" style.

The building of the Bodossaki Foundation on Amalias Avenue. It was designed by Andreas Ploumistos and completed in 1958.[30] Despite its conservatism it has nuances of modernism such as its façade grid.

The simplified classicism of the 1930s remained dominant and only slightly changed well into the 1950s. Again, public and other important buildings but this time also apartment buildings were decorated with classically orientated ornaments. Main entrance doors, railings, and lighting sconces were made of richly decorated ironwork. Often, balustrades were used instead of railings. White marble was used extensively, especially in entry halls which were often very spacious and white was the preferred colour of the façades.

However, in contrast with pre-war simplified classicism, the façades of the newer buildings often included a grid which was formed by balconies and thin vertical columns. Many apartment buildings that were built during that era in Kolonaki and other central upscale neighbourhoods of Athens were designed by architects preferred by the upper-middle class such as Emmanouil Vourekas and Konstantinos Kapsampelis.[31]

The building of the National Museum of Contemporary Art on Syngrou Avenue. It was designed in 1957 by Takis Zenetos as the Fix brewery and was originally twice as long as it is now.

Already since 1949, the completion of the Greek Air Force Assistance Fund building on Akadimias Street, which was designed in 1947 by Thoukydidis Valentis, showed the course that most office buildings in central Athens would follow. The building is completely undecorated with a subtly visible concrete frame in the form of a grid, and has many Corbusian principles such as the ground floor pilotis. Valentis had a consistent ideology behind the design principles of office buildings concerning practicality and aesthetics which he later in 1960 wrote down in Architektoniki [Architecture] review.[32] Some years later, two young architects, Nikos Valsamakis (born in 1924) and Takis Zenetos (1926–1977) also exerted much influence in revitalizing Greek modernism. Their buildings, notably one of Valsamakis's first apartment buildings on Semitelou Street (1951) and Zenetos's Fix brewery on Syngrou Avenue (1957, now partly demolished and renovated houses the National Museum of Contemporary Art), are radically different from their contemporary counterparts. Valsamakis's apartment building on Semitelou Street is devoid of any ornament and has a façade grid formed by balconies and columns. Moreover, its design is inspired by traditional architecture only in matters of materials, such as the stonemasonry of the ground floor and wooden elements elsewhere, and colouring, such as the contrast between white and bright red.[33] Zenetos's designs, on the other hand, are inspired by technological and industrial progress.

The office building at the start of Ermou Street on Syntagma Square. It was designed in 1961 by Dimitris Papazisis and its interior by Takis Zenetos. It has a curtain wall made of I-beams, marble, and glass.

Gradually, apart from Le Corbusier's principles such as pilotis and horizontal windows, also post-war International Style came to influence most buildings in Athens. Also, the grid on façades, especially those of office buildings, became one of the most important fields in design innovation. Departing from Valentis's Corbusian proto-Brutalist accentuated grid made of permanent masonry, glass and aluminium curtain walls started to take over. Valsamakis's office building on Kapnikareas Square (1958) and Dimitris Papazisis's office building on Syntagma Square (1961) were the first buildings in Athens where a full blown curtain wall similar in fashion to those of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was implemented.[34][35]

OTE building near Victoria Square designed in 1961 by Kostas Kitsikis.

Marble, an abundant material in Greece, was again much used. In 1961, Kostas Kitsikis designed an office building for OTE on Tritis Septemvriou Street which includes a 58-metre tower with curtain walls and a lower wing with long brise soleil.[36]

Important buildings of that era include; the building of the Athens Conservatoire on Rigillis Street. It was originally conceived by Ioannis Despotopoulos as part of a large cultural centre in 1959 which went through many alterations and finally stalled. Finally, only the Athens Conservatoire was built between 1969 and 1976. The building is praised for its clean lines, the feeling of transition when one moves from the street into the building, and Despotopoulos's handling of both tradition and monumentality;[37] the building of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, which was designed by Constantinos Doxiadis and built between 1965 and 1968. Similar to Oscar Niemeyer's buildings, its front and rear façades have strict grids while its lateral ones are covered by smooth marble.[38] Moreover, the library wing with its low height makes a contrast with the taller office wing in the background;[39] the Hilton Athens which was designed by Emmanouil Vourekas, Prokopis Vasileiadis, and Spyros Staikos and completed in 1963. It is a modern building; however, the extensive use of white marble and thin columns made it an example of the "classicizing modernism" of that period, similar in fashion to the United States embassy building in Athens designed by Walter Gropius and completed in 1961.[40][35][41]

• 
  The Athens Conservatoire designed by Ioannis Despotopoulos.
• 
  The National Hellenic Research Foundation designed by Constantinos Doxiadis.
• 
  The Hilton Athens.
• 
  The embassy of United States in Athens, designed by Walter Gropius.
• 
  An office building on Stadiou Street designed in c. 1960 by Emmanouil Vourekas and Periklis Sakellarios.[42]

• [Fessas-Emmanouil, Helen] (editor) Φεσσά-Εμμανουήλ, Ελένη (2009), Ελληνική Αρχιτεκτονική Εταιρεία: Αρχιτέκτονες του 20ού αιώνα, Ποταμός, Αθήνα, ISBN 9789606691386.
• [Fessas-Emmanouil, Helen] Φεσσά-Εμμανουήλ, Ελένη (2010), "Η Αθήνα στο δεύτερο ήμισυ του 20ού αιώνα", Greekarchitects.gr. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
• [Filipidis, Dimitris] Φιλιππίδης, Δημήτρης (2001), "Τέχνες Ι: ελληνικές εικαστικές τέχνες, επισκόπηση της ελληνικής αρχιτεκτονικής και πολεοδομίας", Ιστορίας της ελληνικής αρχιτεκτονικής και πολεοδομίας, Hellenic Open University, Patras, ISBN 9605382911.
• [Frantziskakis, Frantzis K.] (editor) Φραντζισκάκης, Φραντζής Κ. (1965), 50 ἐτῶν δρᾶσις τοῦ Κώστα Κιτσίκη, Ασπιώτη – ΕΛΚΑ, Athens.
• [Giacumacatos, Andreas] Γιακουμακάτος, Αντρέας (2009), Ιστορία της ελληνικής αρχιτεκτονικής: 20ός αιώνας, Νεφέλη, Αθήνα, ISBN 9602116862.
• [Sarigiannis, Georgios M.] Σαρηγιάννης, Γεώργιος Μ. (2012), "Si le bâtiment va bien, tout va bien (αν η οικοδομή πάει καλά, όλα παν καλά.)", Greekarchitects.gr. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
• [Valentis, Thoukydidis] Βαλεντής, Θουκυδίδης (1960), "Μορφολογία κτηρίων-γραφείων· θεωρητική και εφηρμοσμένη εισαγωγή εις την αρχιτεκτονική των κτηρίων-γραφείων· ερευνώμεναι περιπτώσεις", Αρχιτεκτονική, volume 21 pages 55–62 and volumes 22/23 pages 83–90.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Modernist architecture in Athens.

• Condaratos, Savas; Wang, Wilfried (editors) (1999), Greece: 20th-Century Architecture, Prestel Pub, ISBN 3791321528.
• [Fessas-Emmanouil, Helen] Φεσσά-Εμμανουήλ, Ελένη (2001), Δοκίμια για τη νέα ελληνική αρχιτεκτονική [Essays on Neohellenic Architecture], ISBN 9789609159708.
• Filipidis, Dimitris (editor) (1998), Urban Housing of the 30s; Modern Architecture in Pre-War Athens, Nireas, ISBN 9607597117.