The Complicated Case of Polykatoikia, Athens' Famous Postwar Apartment Blocks - Architizer Journal
"Marseille to Athens to carry out the CIAM IV Conference (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) titled “the Functional City”. Le Corbusier (architect), Fernand Léger (artist), Christian Zervos (art critic) and Siegfried Giedion (architectural historian) irreversibly shaped the future of Athens’s built environment by advocating and promoting the modernist movement, thus inspiring Greek architects to produce the first designs of the Athenian Polykatoikia.
Until the 1950s, polykatoikias slowly overshadowed the many two-story neoclassical houses that stood as the predominant form of residence throughout the city. However, in the late 1950s, following the devastating losses of the Second World War and the Greek Civil War, large parts of the population were leaving the countryside to migrate to the country’s capital in search of a better life. Consequently, the need for housing in Athens grew exponentially, and a new law, antiparochi, was created that changed the trajectory of the city’s urban layout forever. The law of antiparochi allowed landowners to exchange their plots for ownership of some of the apartments in the new polykatoikia constructed on their land, resulting in the erection of countless polykatoikia buildings in record time."
At this link: The Athenian Polykatoikia (@athenian.polykatoikia) • Instagram photos and videos
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