Villa in Anavryta by architect Aris Zambicos (2005). The spatial concept is inspired by architect Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture. New addition to villa designed by architect Kyriakos Krokos (1991). The excellent interplay created by arch. Maria Kokkinou and Andreas Kourkoulas (2005).
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of the contractors and builders using “the ones we know” and the EU pre-qualification system of inviting tenders for projects or competitions does not ease the break-through. The best way for young architects has always been going through projects of private villas, and as this tradition of individual building design particularly in Greece has been very strong, it is still a very good possibility. Fancy villas have found a renaissance especially now when the issue of trendy homes and personal life style has become so “hot”. Of course the competitions are important as well as the general promotion of modernist Greek architecture accomplished through exhibitions, journals and books. A revival of the interest in architecture has been noticeable since the competitions for the new Acropolis Museum, a series of Greek entries in the Venice Biennale since 1990 and the RIBA exhibition 2003 of contemporary architecture in Greece. Greek nominations for the Mies van der Rohe prize (Katerina Tsiagarida and Zoe Samourkas 2000) and Greek Euro-Pan-competitionwinners call for international attention. Finally the international competition of “Ephemeral structures” 2002-03-part of the Greek cultural Olympiad, aimed at new intermediate installations enriching the urban scene. This tempted a lot of young talents of architecture to come forward with new ideas. So gradually Greek architecture is finding its place in the international scene. Many Greek architects are still trained in Schools of architecture abroad. In Greece three new schools of architecture are challenging the two older ones in Athens and Thessaloniki. An international exchange of students and professionals does also develop the wider perspective and a shared knowledge. A lot of talents are found, but the week point is that architecture is considered as the production of individual artefacts, especially individual villas, which do often establish a strong relationship between nature and the given artefact. So the key problem which Greek architecture today faces is that the accumulation of individual successful buildings can hardly amount to