Dimitris Chatziioakeimidis. Renovation as a Project.

Renovation as a Project

ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE GRADUATE SCHOOL PROGRAMMES COVERSHEET FOR SUBMISSION 2019-2020

PROGRAMME: Projective Cities, Taught MPhil in Architecture and Urban design

STUDENT NAME(S):

Dimitris Chatziioakeimidis

Renovation as a Project SUBMISSION TITLE:

Renovation as a Project Athenian Postwar Office Buildings as Social Infrastructure

Athenian Postwar Office Buildings as Social Infrastructure

COURSE TITLE: Dissertation COURSE TUTOR: Platon Issaias, Hamed Khosravi

DECLARATION: “I certify that this piece of work is entirely my/our own and that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of others is duly acknowledged.”

Signature of Student(s):

Date:

25th of May 2020

Chatziioakeimidis Dimitris, May 2020 Projective Cities: MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design Architectural Association School of Architecture in London

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Contents Abstract

p. 7

Introduction

p. 9

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

p. 17

1.1 Athens as a Tabula Plena.

1.2 The Vacant Building Stock of Athens.

1.3 Bankruptcy 1.4 Reasons of ‘Vacancy’ 1.5 Office Buildings as part of the Vacant Building Stock 2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

p. 39

2.1 Postwar Reconstruction of Athens.

2.2 Towards a Definition. (Analysis in 3 parts) 2.3 Facade Categories 2.4 The Third Way Proposition: Layers 3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

p. 89 p. 101

3.1 Four Decades of Failed Urbanism, or the Crisis before the Crisis.

3.2 Decentralisation of Public Services and the role of the Post-war Office Building.

3.3 Infrastructural Gap and the Emergence of the Commons.

Proposition: Infrastructure Platforms 4. Renovation

p. 115 p. 127

4.1 The Emergence of Renovation 4.2 The Institutionalization of Renovation: Energy Performance Regulations and its Discontents.

4.3 Energy Performance Regulations in Postwar Office Buildings 4.4 Archetypical Renovations: Postwar Office Buildings to Hotels and its Consequences.

4.5 Renovation as a Project: From the Building to the City Proposition: Alternative Renovation Protocols

p. 145

5. Design & Conclusions

p. 189

Bibliography

p. 231

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Abstract

The project is concerned with the re-use of post-war office buildings, in the

inner centre of Athens, through the proposition of a series of renovation protocols.

The research focuses on the state of the vacant building stock of Athens, its causes and the implications it has on the urban space of the city. The Post-war office building, is considered here an exceptional part of that building stock, and through a historical and typological analysis its architectural and urban characteristics are unfolded in order to be instrumentalised towards an alternative renovation project.

Additionally, the role of this typology in the process of the decentralization of the city of Athens that started in the 80’s, is further examined, in order to understand the “crisis before the crisis�, which led to a slow but steady degradation of the city centre. Finally, the research shows the transformation of this building during these periods, from a symbol of civic life and modernization, to a neglected object appropriated by the tourist industry, which dictates the significance of this building type on the architectural and urban scale, thus the question is: how can renovation be instrumentalised for a project for the city?

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Introduction

1.Contrary to innovation, renovation is an indifferent word. Both descendants of novus (new), the former refers to the act of doing something in a different way, the latter refers to the act of making something new again, suggesting its preexistence.

In the field of architecture, can include from basic maintenance operations to specialized techniques when it comes to preserving structures of architectural value or cultural heritage. What is clear is that it operates as an umbrella term, incorporating different approaches that link architecture with modification instead of creation.

But what is the disciplinary value of renovation? In recent years the aggregation of existing built form has rendered cities, and especially their centers, as tabula plena.1 Literally meaning a full tablet, as Bryony Roberts notes, it refers to “a space where a density of previous markings remains”.2 Contrary to the familiar term of tabula rasa, a blank slate in which architecture operates with no restrictions, strategies addressing tabula plena conditions, are heavily affected by these existing “markings”. Cities are presented as full slates, to whom architecture must find different ways to intervene.

Moreover, one needs to take in consideration the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis, and the increasing implications of climate change, both of which have put in the forefront different policies of dealing with the existing. To this new reality, the dilemma is whether demolition or re-use is the most appropriate approach. The only way for this debate to be effective, as Hubert-Jan Henket notes, is a contextual evaluation.3 For instance, in contexts such as Athens, where the building stock significantly exceeds the current lowered building coefficients, demolition is out of the question. Still, even if this is not the case, demolition raises other environmental issues. To this new condition of contextual complexity and constraints, there are examples of renovation which operate in a way that stress the conventional modus operandi of practice.

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

1 Bryony Roberts, ed., Tabula Plena: Forms of Urban Preservation (Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2016).

2

ibid

3 Hubert-Jan Henket, “Reuse, Transformation and Restoration,” Docomomo Journal, no. 52 – Reuse, Renovation and Restoration (2015).

9

i

The necessity for demolition is a very recent feature, and consequently it lacks

bombed- yet, born as a reaction to the late modernism tabula rasa clearing approach,

sufficient protocols. More than tearing a building down, as Keller Easterling

amongst other aims, it focused on the renewal of the existing building stock.

mentions, demolition can be reconsidered as a design principle, and more specifically

Contrary to the ‘facadism’ approach followed by the IBA-Neubau, the IBA-Altbau

that of subtraction.4 In fact, subtraction can be a very creative process. Illustrative

section was occupied with the renovation of existing structures in Kreuzberg.7

of this is the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, where demolition is redefined through

This included basic maintenance and repairing works, internal reorganization of

his Conical Intersections in buildings. Another approach, that addresses demolition

existing apartments, rearrangement of the ‘Berlin courtyard’ and so on. Still, the

is Deconstruction. As the Belgian practice Rotor suggests through their work,

most important feature was the renovation of buildings, in order to accommodate

the careful dismantling of buildings planned for demolition, opens completely

different uses, that would address the infrastructural deficit of the city, created by the

new directions. The main aim is the balancing of demolition’s environmental side

fig iii

iii

division of Berlin.8 Moving from the room to the building and the block, and finally

effects, by re-using materials through the circular economy. This renders buildings

to the city, this example shows that depending the way renovation is instrumentalised

as repositories, but also opens up radical redesign assignments through components.

it can acquire a much more crucial role.

Moreover, when it comes to buildings of architectural value that cannot be saved, the salvaged components redefine preservation methods. A completely opposite take on demolition comes from Lacaton & Vassal, encapsulated in the phrase: “Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse”.5 Specifically, through

ii

of Sovereign crisis. The continuous neoliberal reformations introduced during this

alternatives to demolition are also possible, with less waste of materials, labour,

period have had direct implications on urban space. An explicit manifestation of

capital, and most importantly without consequences to inhabitants (relocation,

this condition can be found in the inner center of Athens, where the amount of

changes in rents). Moreover, their method of extending existing buildings, through

partially or wholly unused buildings has magnified a transformation already taking

winter gardens although banal it is crucial, since it questions how renovation deals

place before the economic recession. The dense and continuous urban fabric of

with the energy efficiency restrictions. Lastly, the work of Brandlhuber+, questions

Athens, a characteristic tabula plena environment has been internally mutated into

new mandatory standards for existing buildings, in order to find ways to surpass

a fragmented vacuum, an “empty city inside the city”. This particular version of

them or indicate their malfunction, and consequent re-evaluation from authorities.

tabula plena, opens up questions regarding a possible “reprogramming” of the city,

6 In Antivilla, its winter use is based on a smaller heated space while on warmer months its usable space can tripled, through the use of movable and translucent elements. see: Fernando Márquez Cecilia and Richard C. Levene, eds., Brandlhuber+ 1996-2018: arquitectura como práctica discursiva: a discursive architectural practice, El Croquis 194 (Madrid: El Croquis, 2018).

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fig ii

through its vacant space. Having this as an entry point, Chapter 1 is an investigation

Brandlhuber+, deals with both preservation and energy performance in radical ways.

of this condition, and through data analysis it tries to define the vacant building

Specifically, the established renovation methods of physical upgrading of external

stock of Athens as a main urban problem, and locate the reasons that maintain and

shells are dismissed for new design principles. The most important is the creation

even enhance this condition. In this context, the post-war office building is identified

of different internal climatic zones, a gradation that allows for a different use of

as an exceptional typology of downtown Athens, one that that has been severely

space according to the season of the year. The previous examples make clear that

affected by the condition of vacancy, but on the same time presents exceptional

renovation is not only related with maintenance, change, adaptation, or preservation

features to address it.

6

5 In 2004, Lacaton & Vassal, with Frédéric Druot, produced the PLUS manifesto, challenging an initiative by the French government to demolish a significant part of its long-vilified social housing stock and build new smaller dwellings at great expense. See: Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton, and Jean-Philippe Vassal, Plus: Large-scale Housing Developments, an Exceptional Case (Barcelona: Ed. Gustavo Gili, 2007).

2. Athens, being the capital of Greece, has had a significant role in the current period

the renovation of modernist slab estates in France, they managed to prove that

In several projects, such as the Antivilla, a renovation of a former factory to a house,

4 Keller Easterling, Subtraction, ed. Nikolaus Hirsch, Critical Spatial Practice 4 (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2014).

fig i

-material modifications per se- but it can be linked to broader disciplinary issues.

Moreover, through the consequent sociopolitical aspects of these operations, it

For this reason, chapter 2 is concerned entirely with the Post-war Office Building

can also be related to the city. The combination of the above, calls for a radical

type. The birth and evolution of this type will be examined through the combination

reinterpretation of renovation as a project.

of a historical and typological analysis based on six case studies, but also on archival research. The definition of this typology will help to crystalize its basic features,

One can trace such a project, in the International Building Exhibition Berlin (IBA)

their relation to the city, and most importantly to understand what is their use-

1984/1987. Although not a typical tabula plena condition -half of the city was

value for a potential “reprogramming” of the city’s vacant space. This is also

Renovation as a project

2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

7 IBA was split in two different directions, IBA-Neubau concerned with the ‘Critical Reconstruction of the Berlin Block’ and IBA-Altbau concerned with ‘Careful Urban Renewal’.

8 Through what is now known as adaptive re-use, IBA-Altbau emphasized the importance of public infrastructure, such as kindergartens, elderly care, etc. This was directly related with the fact that after the separation of West Berlin by the wall, Kreuzberg became the edge of the new city and lost most of its public facilities.

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supported by an examination of the pathogenies of this type, found mostly in the

The last chapter of the thesis focuses on renovation in the context of Athens.

characteristics of the façade. Through a classification, the type is further analysed

Firstly, an investigation is made concerning how financial circumstances established

through canonical examples, in order to portray, how western prototypes of the

renovation as the official modus operandi of the construction industry. Although it

modern movement were implemented in the Greek context, and its economic, social

emerged as a natural response to bankruptcy, in more recent years due to the energy

and technological limitations. This reasons the energy-oriented pathogenies of the

efficiency standards imposed by the E.U, it seems that renovation is evolving into

type in the contemporary era, and opens up questions regarding the climatic and

a more institutionalized version. Having acknowledged the benefits of renovation

environmental aspect of modern architecture.

for the economy, through the introduction of KENAK law (Regulation on the Energy Performance of Buildings), the state has provided a framework that allows only for very

In order to understand how a potential reprogramming of the city might respond

specific operations oriented mostly around the circulation of capital. This chapter

to current problems, Chapter 3 is concerned with a deeper reading of the issue

elaborates on this legislative apparatus and more specifically how its implementation

of the centre, and contrary to the cause and effect narrative of the crisis, looks

affects the post-war office building type in terms of its renovation, making their

at its current pathogenies as a result of a process already taking place before the

transformation to 4 (or more) star hotels the only viable investment. Moreover, the

economic recession. This “crisis before the crisis”, that starts in the late 70’s with

consequences of this operation in the architecture and the urban scale are analyzed

the suburban exodus of middle-class inhabitants, is consolidated in the 90’s with the

and open up several questions. Firstly, how do we intervene in such modernist

development of peripheral mobility infrastructure before and during the Olympic

buildings? Furthermore, how can this fragment set an alternative renovation example

games period. This decentralisation procedure, created a new relationship between

that would allow for an exploitation of the vacant building stock with a different

periphery and centre, that triggered a major shift in the urban geography of Athens

impact on the city. Thus, renovation is understood as a much broader and more

and led to a slow but steady neglection of the core of the city. In the framework of

complex phenomenon, and is approached as a project for the city.

this decentralization process the Postwar Office Building has a prominent role as an archetype of state administrative facilities or public sector services which were either merged or relocated in peripheral areas. This relocation is further analysed through the real estate of the Social Pension Institutions, one of the few cases of unified single properties, whose neglection represents the dissolution of important fragments of civic life. The argument of the chapter is that due to the urbanism strategies of the last 40 years, which transformed the civic character of the city centre, an infrastructural gap has emerged which was made evident during the crisis period. This gap refers to the inability of both the state and its partnerships with the private sector, to implement at a decent level the social contract. However, although Greece can be seen as a projection screen for Europe’s most extreme neoliberal policies, at the same time it is a locus of resistance. The magnification of several otherwise marginal self-organized initiatives, or cooperative schemes during the crisis period, made clear that there was an attempt to overcome this gap in social infrastructure by the population itself. Having this as an entry point, the last section of the chapter investigates the emergence of the commons during and after the crisis, and how this paradigm shift might support and be supported by an alternative re-use of vacant post-war office buildings.

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Renovation as a project

2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

13

Aims

Structure & Methods:

The aim of the thesis is to propose an alternative renovation strategy for post-war

The dissertation is structured on four chapters, each of whom address independently

office buildings, that would allow for the activation of their vacant space. This is

a specific theme, which is analysed through different methods. Except from the first

done in order to prevent the archetypical renovation paradigm, that of transforming

chapter that deals with a broader definition of problems, each of these chapters

them to hotels, and the consequent implications that this operation has for the

end up with a proposition that tries to respond to the theme/problem analysed.

centre of the city.

Operating as diagrams or suggestions, they are gathered in the last chapter, in order to be applied as renovation strategy for a final design. This last Design chapter the effectiveness or failure of these propositions is tested and in turn reflected upon.

Research Questions: Disciplinary Questions:

Chapter 1: The vacant building stock of Athens

-What is the role of renovation in urban environments with tabula plena conditions?

Method:

-How can it redefine the role of the architect?

-Data analysis based on previous research programs by Greek Universities, and independent researches.

Typological Questions:

Chapter 2: The Athenian Post-war office building

-How can the energy efficiency restrictions generate alternative renovation protocols

Method:

that will allow for a different typological transformation of the Athenian Postwar

-Comparative typological analysis of case studies

office building?

-Archival research (Neohellenic Architecture Archives, Architects’ personal archive, Urban Planning Department of Athens)

Urban Questions:

Chapter 3: The infrastructural gap of the city

-How can the renovation of Postwar office buildings be instrumentalised in a way

Method:

that enables different models of exploitation of the vacant building stock of the

-Historical analysis of the urbanism agendas of Athens for the last four decades.

city?

Chapter 4: Renovation

-How does this renovation model operate in different scales and affect local

Method:

neighborhoods?

-Review of the Energy Performance Legislations (KENAK law: (ΦΕΚ B2367/12.07.2017), law 4122/2013: (ΦΕΚ Α42/19.02.2013) “Energy Performance Of Buildings-Harmonization With Directive 2010/31/EU”).

Design Strategy: (Post-war Office Buildings as Infrastructure Platforms)

-Research and mapping of offices buildings renovated to hotels, based on the review

Having as an entry point the programme initiated in 2017 by the Ministry of Labour,

of articles of the general press, or magazines related to the investment and real

concerning the exploitation of the vacant real estate of the Social Security Institutions,

estate field.

in terms of social reimbursement, the strategy proposes the re-use of Post-war office buildings as Infrastructure Platforms for the city. Specifically, it concerns a renovation strategy that is based on typological reasoning. The tripartite structure of the type, is instrumentalised in order to accommodate different renovation, development and management models, which can operate independently but also form a ‘difficult whole’. To achieve this, a series of alternative renovation protocols are proposed that allow for the questioning and by-passing of the limitations imposed by the energy efficiency regulations.

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Renovation as a project

2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

15

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens.

1.1 Athens as a Tabula Plena.

“A dictionary begins when it no longer gives the meaning of words, but their tasks”. 1

In his small article, or rather dictionary entry, in the surrealist journal Documents, published in 1929, Bataille describes the word ‘informe’ (formless) as, not only an adjective, but a term that is concerned with the desire of not wanting to be defined, a concept that enables the declassification of things or cancelation of the need to seek a certain form for everything that exists. The concept of formless was re-examined and established in the art scene by the cultural theorists Yves-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss in 1996 with their exhibition Formless: A User’s Guide at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. They argued that several artists of the twentieth century, from abstract expressionists to post-modernists, have used formlessness as a tool for creativity, in order to de-elevate art. The purpose of this exhibition was not the definition of the term itself through art but to use it in order

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

1 Georges Bataille, “Formless,” in Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939, ed. Allan Stoekl (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008).

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to re-arrange modernism’s definitions, through an operation of taxonomic disorder. In other words, the formless, should be read more as a verb (to question, avoid or modify form), and consequently what matters is its “use-value”.2 There is a particularity in the urban landscape of Athens. The form of the city is fig 1.1

characterized by its formlessness. Specifically, the city is an aggregation mainly of apartment buildings (polikatoikia), the infinite repetition of the same unit, whose sum forms the city’s image and presents it as a unified field. It is then no wonder that the city is described as a “form-less, border-less and placeless urban landscape”3, covering suburbia until it reaches the physical limits of the mountains or the sea. The ‘use value’ of this urban continuum lies in the fact that from its birth until the 80’s, it enabled a sort of social cohesion, a mixing inside the same repetitive type, that allowed for the minimization of major social differences. Still, the extreme profit driven construction of the city produced a very dense urban fabric, especially in the city centre, that puts Athens in the discussion concerning urban environments also known in the discourse as tabula plena.4 Contrary to tabula rasa urbanism, this field is concerned with strategies referring to urban landscapes that are full of existing buildings and systems that have accumulated over time. The impasse of the accumulated building stock of the city centre, makes Athens a paradigmatic case of tabula plena.

1.2 The Vacant Building Stock of Athens.

The continuous neoliberal reformations introduced during the period of the sovereign crisis have had immediate effect in everyday life, and moreover direct implications on urban space. The most explicit manifestation of this condition can be found in the inner center of Athens, where the amount of partially or wholly unused or derelict buildings has magnified a transformation already taking place before the economic recession.

3 Y. Aesopos and Y. Simeoforidis, eds., The Contemporary (Greek) City (Athens: Metapolis Press, 2001).

Hence, the area of research is the Municipality of Athens, and more specifically the area

4 Bryony Roberts, ed., Tabula Plena: Forms of Urban Preservation (Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2016).

defined by the limits of the historical center. A very important placeholder inside these

5 Most of the analyses and research programs that have during the years been involved in the investigation of this phenomenon, have mostly focused on areas around these axes, since they are identified as the most problematic.

limits is the area delimited by the three main roads forming the ‘Triangle’ of Athens, and fig 1.2-3

its neighboring areas.5 Numerous articles mention that the amount of vacant buildings in the centre of Athens is more than 1500.6 The scale of this condition renders vacant buildings not as occasional examples that can be addressed individually, but as an urban phenomenon that needs to be investigated in relation to the city. According to the findings of a research conducted by the University of Thessaly,7 very high percentages of vacant properties are found

fig 1.1 Athens, 2018

both in commercial ground floors and the floors above. Specifically, 40% of the total

source: Pinelopi Gerasimou

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Renovation as a project

2 Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind E Krauss, Formless: a User’s Guide (New York: Zone Books, 1997).

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

6 Giorgos Lialios, “Giving Life to the Abandoned Buildings,” Kathimerini, July 16, 2012, https://www.kathimerini.gr/776337/article/ politismos/polh/dinontas-zwh-sta-egkataleimmena-ktiria; Ioannis Maniatis, “The 1800 Abandoned Buildings of the Centre,” Athens Voice, April 6, 2016, https://www.athensvoice.gr/politics/125168_ ta-1800-egkataleleimmena-ktiria-toy-kentroy; “1400 Are the Estimated Abandoned Buildings in Athens,” Kathimerini, February 14, 2012, https://www.kathimerini.gr/1010037/article/epikairothta/ellada/ sta-1400-ypologizontai-ta-egkataleleimmena-ktiria-sthn-a8hna.

7 Research completed by the Department of Planning and Regional Development, UTH, partial publication of findings in: Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Building Stock of Central Athens,” Athens Social Atlas, 2015, and Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Problem of Empty and Abandoned Buildings in the Center of Athens,” Dianeosis, February 28, 2018, https://www.dianeosis.org/2018/02/abandoned-buildings-athens/https://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/ real-estate/

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fig 1.7-8

surface of ground floors shops and 37% of spaces in upper floors are empty.8 Regarding the percentages of buildings that are entirely empty, the same research estimated a 18%.

As N. Triantafyllopoulos points out, the scale of the problem has generated a two-way condition where the urban environment is neglected due to abandoned buildings but at the same time this produces the abandonment of buildings.9 The urban decline of the city, and characteristics such as abandonment, financial crisis and also a continuous decrease in its population point out to similar conditions found in cities that are defined as ‘shrinking’.10 Moreover, the main reasons for urban shrinkage such as de-industrialisation, suburbanization, and/or a change of a financial model11, are all linked with the recent history of the Athenian centre. Looking at the findings of the research program by NTUA, 12 that depict a broader sample of the centre, what is evident is the complexity of the issue of vacancy. Looking at the maps that show the

fig 1.4-5 0

vacant buildings and their former uses, one is actually confronted with a missing city.

The variety and quantity of uses such as commerce, offices, services, administrative

5km

facilities, dwellings and their consequent users, form an ‘empty city inside the city’.

Thus, although Athens is a typical case of Tabula Plena, these characteristics render it at the same time a particular one. Hence, what is at stake is the transition from the perceived unified external image of the city due to its continuous formlessness, to a highly fragmented landscape of voids, an internal urban vacuum or a ‘hollow’ Tabula Plena. In such a case of a dense city fabric one would suggest strategies aiming for urban emptying, such as urban voids that would allow the city to “breath”. As Antonas notes, in the case of Athens, voids are useless since the city has become one itself.13 As he suggests, “In this framework, the perfect negation of today’s Athens would not be a void but a city”.14 From this point of view a new reading of the city emerges, where the focus is shifted to interior space, which consequently gives a new meaning to vacant space. To return to Bataille, as he points out, words have both meanings but also tasks and for him the task of architecture is to give form to what exists.15 If then formlessness is understood in the sense of Bataille, that is having a use value, in the context of this field of emptiness architecture might be reconsidered as an operation that gives content to existing forms.

0

500m

8 Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Building Stock of Central Athens,” Athens Social Atlas, 2015, https://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/ article/real-estate/.

9

ibid

10 Jeremy Németh and Justin Hollander, “Right-Sizing Shrinking Cities: A Landscape and Design Strategy for Abandoned Properties,” Journal of Landscape Architecture 11, no. 2 (2016): 90–100.

11 Aspa Gospodini, “Economic Crisis and the Shrinking Greek Cities” (ICAUD 2012, 1st International Conference on Architecture and Urban Design, Albania: EPOKA, 2012), 685–702.

Municipality of Athens Athens Triangle Historical Centre

12 “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012), p.535 13 Aristide Antonas, “Back to the Garden. Athens and Opportunities for New Urban Strategies,” Uncube Magazine 43, 2016, http:// www.uncubemagazine.com/magazine-43-16565819.html.

fig 1.2 - 1.3 Area of Research

14 Ibid 15 Georges Bataille, “Architecture,” Documents 1, no. 1 (1929).

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Renovation as a project

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

21

Vacant building Κενό κτίσμα Vacant upper floors Κενό κτίσμα

housing Κατοικία στους

office-services Γραφεία -

ορόφους

administration Διοίκηση

Closed shop Κλειστό κατάστημα

Υπηρεσίες

commerce Εμπόριο leisure Αναψυχή

hotels Ξενοδοχεία culture Πολιτισμός

education Εκπαίδευση health care Περίθαλψη craft industry Βιοτεχνία Κλειστό κατάστημα closed shop

0

Χάρτης

22

fig 1.4 Mapping of Vacant Buildings

fig 1.5 Mapping of Last Uses of Vacant Buildings

source: “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and

source:500 “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and

Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012).

8:

Συγκεντρωτική

καταγραφή

κενών

κτισμάτων

250

0

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Renovation as a project

!"#

Χάρτης κενών

Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012).

11: Συγκεντρωτική κτισμάτων

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

καταγραφή

τελευταίων

250

χρήσεων

23

1.3 Bankruptcy Bankruptcy is the reason, or at least the most evident and recent reason, behind the transition from the former homogenized state of the city to its current fragmented condition. Hence, a better understanding of the term itself might be useful. It can be described as the decisive moment when the stability of the modus operandi of a system is interrupted, which leads to a consequent partition of its unity. Etymologically the word bankruptcy derives from the Italian banca rotta, which means “broken bench”, denoting the custom of breaking a moneychanger’s bench to signify his insolvency. An interesting interpretation is to be found in Aristide Antonas writings, where he notes that a bankruptcy can be divided in three time-frames, the moment of the rupture itself, a before and an after.16 The first part, the period until the moment of comprehending a certain disorder, is described by a state of normality and as such it is not questioned. The moment of “breaking the bench”, that is bankruptcy itself, refers to an explosion that signifies the end of the former order, and the beginning of a new period of uncertainty, a period of so-called crisis. According to this point of view, bankruptcy can be described as the disassembling of a previously unified whole into fragments. Crisis, is also a term worth of interpretation. Apart from its common understanding as a moment of instability and uncertainty, it can be also interpreted according to its original meaning in Greek, that is a moment of choice.17 As such, the last phase of this procedure, can be treated with nostalgia for the past, a blind reassembling of the pieces, or with a more critical view, a re-evaluation of ‘what was’ that could allow for a projection of alternative conditions.

In the context of Athens, the state of ‘normality’ was architecturally encapsulated in the unity of the formlessness of its urban form. Its current bankruptcy denoted a change of its homogenized modus operandi, to a fragmented system of isolated parts. If then the bankruptcy of urban space is understood as the fragmentation of a former whole, then an end to this kind of reasoning would point towards a reformation of a unity.

Still, this approach, which is also the dominant opinion, presupposes crisis as a temporal and transitional condition, and in this way, it allows for the justification of a ‘state of exception’ as a necessary evil that has led to the most extreme implementation of neoliberal politics. It is obvious then that fragmentation does not only relate to a bankruptcy in the way it was explained here, but also to the socio-economic implications of a neoliberal fragmentative rationale. This is in line with Maurizio Lazaratto’s definition of the current crisis, not as a stepping stone but as a permanent state of exception, or in his words a catastrophe.18 Through this perspective, any thoughts towards a unifying

fig 1.6 Vacant Ground Floor Shops source: Nancy Katri and Chiara Dorbolò, “Photo Essay: Windows in Crisis – The Decline of Athens’ Commercial Cityscape,” Failed Architecture (blog), https:// failedarchitecture.com/photo-essay-windows-in-crisis-the-decline-of-athens-commercial-cityscape/.

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approach, an understanding of the city as a former glory to which we have to return

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

16 Aristide Antonas, “The Structure of Bankruptcy,” The Bankruptcy of Architecture (blog), August 31, 2010, http://the-bankruptcy-of-architecture.blogspot.com/2010/08/structure-of-bankruptcy.html; see also: Aristide Antonas, “The Origin of the Explosion,” The Bankruptcy of Architecture (blog), August 26, 2010, http://the-bankruptcy-of-architecture.blogspot.com/2010/08/origin-of-explosion_1035.html.

17 Κρίσις has its roots in the Greek verb κρίνω (krino): to “separate” (part, divorce), to “choose”, to “judge”, to “decide”; as a means of “measuring oneself”, to “quarrel” or to “fight”. Reinhart Koselleck and Michaela Richter, “Crisis,” Journal of the History of Ideas 67, no.

2 (2006): p. 358 18 Maurizio Lazzarato, The Making of the Indebted Man An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition, trans. Joshua David Jordan, Semiotext(e) Intervention Series 13 (Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e), 2012).

25

again, can be rendered irrelevant. If then a reconstruction of a previous normality is dismissed, the question is how can the city renew itself through its vacant space?

1.4 Reasons of ‘Vacancy’ In order to respond to the previous question, first one needs to find the reasons that actually maintain this condition of emptiness. First of all, we need to mention listed buildings. This is an issue which is linked to the problem of the center for several decades. According to the most recent data, only inside the limits of the historical center, there are 828 declared listed buildings, the majority of which are buildings of 2 to 3 floors.19 Apparently a large number of these buildings are either abandoned by their legal owners due to the high restoration costs or they have been acquired by the state for the protection of cultural heritage but their maintenance was never a high priority.

One of the main characteristics of the Greek post-war model of developing space was and still is, small and fragmented property. On the one hand the law of horizontal property had a crucial role in the provision of land and dwelling for a wide range of

1.7

1.8

1.9

1.10

the population allowing for social cohesion but on the other hand this feature has had an immense impact on the creation of the vacant building stock. Moreover, although it can be argued that the fragmentation of property per building has been an important way of resistance towards gentrification tendencies, on the other hand it has enhanced this condition of stasis, since any potential reorganization of the building stock in line with existing legislation is extremely difficult. There are two research programs that approached this matter and can provide data that explain this phenomenon in more detail. Both of them focused on the same area, the neighborhoods around Omonoia square, and although the size of the properties was somehow expected due to the small land plots, the fragmentation has taken extraordinary dimensions.20 Specifically, from a sample of 1650 buildings one of the researches presented an average of co-ownership was 32 people, and 50% of buildings have more than 75 owners each.21 The other research conducted in 2010 for Gerani neighborhood, resulted that in the scale of an urban block there are cases where the owners reach to almost 600.22 Apparently, through the years due to the inheritance succession, ownership multiplied to the point where a 19 Anaplasi AE, “Urban Renewal of the Center of Athens. Competition Data Booklet” (Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, 2019).

20 “CCR: City Common Resource. Athens-Gerani 2010-2011” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2011) and. Research by the Department of Planning and Regional Development, UTH 21 Ibid 7 22 “CCR: City Common Resource. Athens-Gerani 2010-2011”.

See also: Maria Theodorou, “The city in common. A pilot approach of SARCHA for the area Gerani in the center of Athens,” in To Kentro tis Athinas os Politiko Diakiveuma (Athens city centre as a political stake), ed. Thomas Maloutas et al. (Athens: ΕΚΚΕ, 2013), 305–28.

26

mutual agreement regarding the management or the maintenance of such buildings is rendered impossible, not to mention any strategy on a city scale.

The next two reasons are linked. The first one, concerns the real estate strategies that keep a part of the buildings stock out of market. Specifically, properties and even whole buildings are kept vacant, in order to profit from a future speculation, which will be

Renovation as a project

fig 1.7-1.10 Mapping of Vacant Buildings around Omonoia Square source: Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Building Stock of Central Athens,” Athens Social Atlas, 2015, https://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/real-estate/.

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

27

more beneficial, either because of an urban renewal of a part of the city or because of

line with current energy efficiency standards, their restoration fees exceed their current

a post-crisis prosperity period. 23 Basically, they are creating the market in which they

market value.28

want to be integrated. Several of them are also linked to failed investment attempts which took place in the post-Olympic period in 2004, when for the first time there was

1.5 Office Buildings as part of the vacant building stock

an evident structural change on the accumulation of large property, without expecting

During the postwar reconstruction period, when the Athenian centre was established,

the forthcoming financial crisis. At a certain extent this is an operation that continues

it acquired a multiple role as the economic, administrative and political heart of the

to take place, since a large number of small-scale owners which cannot maintain their

country, maintaining at the same time its character as a residential area. For this reason, in

small property in the center would prefer to sell it, allowing other investors to proceed

large parts of the centre, and contrary to the dominant building type of the polykatoikia,

with the massive accumulation of a devalued building stock. The second one has to do

the urban tissue consists mostly of buildings that respond to the programmatic needs

with the building factor prescribed for the plots of the central areas. Specifically, most

of office space. Although the multifunctionality of the polikatoikia type accommodated

of the buildings of the centre have been constructed during the peak of the postwar

also other uses apart from dwelling, the symbolic role of the center for the city but also

reconstruction, which means that the majority have used the maximum building heights

the country, was expressed by buildings constructed specifically for these uses. Having

possible. Indeed, 50% of the them exceed their current factor. This poses obstacles

fig 1.9

for their speculation, even in cases that the issue of fragmented property is overcome,

with office space.29 The dominance of this type in the center, only in terms of quantity,

because demolition would mean loss of square meters, hence profit. As a result, for

partially justifies why it appears to be the one most heavily affected by the phenomenon

the investors mentioned before, renovation is the only way of dealing with existing

of vacant space. According to research data on specific areas of the centre, in 2013,

buildings.

more than 30% of such buildings were vacant.30

This brings us to the last reason that is maintaining the condition of vacancy in the city,

If one looks at the reasons of vacancy analysed in the previous section in relation to this

that is, the energy efficiency standards. This is a problem linked to both pathogenies of

building type, then it is evident that it is not only related with quantitative reasons. For

the past but also with new conditions that have emerged in the last years. Concerning

example, in this case the issue of fragmented property is actually intensified, due to the

the latter, due to climate change, all members of the E.U have been dealing with

several small businesses occupying a building.31 Thus, in cases of partial abandonment

constant pressures of implementing building regulations that lower their environmental

the rest of the users are not able to maintain decent levels for common spaces or the

impact. In parallel with this, the implications of the financial and humanitarian crisis in

structure of the buildings. Moreover, concerning building factors, due to their location,

Greece have generated what is termed by several scholars as ‘energy poverty’. Hence

they present almost in every case its maximum use, putting them immediately to the

energy efficiency of buildings has become a crucial aspect of the built environment.

category of buildings that are not profitable to demolish and rebuild. To be more precise,

Concerning the former, that is the pathogenies of the Athenian building stock, it seems

it can be said that office buildings and maximum building factors in the centre of Athens

that these buildings pose such difficulties in terms of adjusting to these new standards,

go hand in hand, especially during the peak of the post-war reconstruction period. Still

to the extent that they are rendered obsolete. More specifically, more than 60% of the

the major problem of this type is that it is identified completely with all the pathogenies

buildings in the centre have been constructed before 1960.25 Although this should not

of the current energy efficiency standards. Their low-quality construction in line with

be considered a relatively old building stock, the problem is located firstly on their

the insulation inefficiencies mentioned before render them very energy-intensive and

insufficient maintenance and secondly in their construction methods and technology. If

highly incompatible.

24

23 Georgia Alexandri and Eleni Patatouka, “Real Εstate in the Center of Athens: Myths and Stakes” (What “crisis” in the center of Athens?, NTUA, May 16, 2011), https://encounterathens.wordpress. com/2011/05/18/real-estate-text/. and “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012), p.534,538.

24 See: Evanghelia Chatzikonstantinou and Fereniki Vatavali, Geographies Tis EnergeiakIs Ptoxias Stin Athina Tis Krisis: Tria Keimena Kai Eksi Istories Polikatoikion (Geographies of Energy Poverty in Crisis Athens) (Athens: Angelus Novus, 2018).

25 Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Problem of Empty and Abandoned Buildings in the Center of Athens,” Dianeosis, February 28, 2018, https://www.dianeosis.org/2018/02/abandoned-buildings-athens/ 26 National Statistical Authority of Greece (EL. STAT), “2011 Building Census,” 2015, https://www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/68bace8d-dd7a-4840-8f3d-81566f083fbd.

27 “On the approval of a regulation for the thermal insulation of buildings” (ΦΕΚ 362Δ ́/1979). On top of that, 84% of the building stock has been constructed before 2000, that is, before the implementation of the most recent Antiseismic Regulation.

28

made this distinction, the thesis is concerned only with office buildings and not in general

one considers that more than half of the building stock of the country is built before 1980 , and that the first obligatory regulation for thermal insulation was established in

As it has been observed in other cities as well, office space can be the subject of vacancy

1979, it practically means that the building stock of central Athens is “naked”.27 Thus,

even in times of prosperity.32 In Athens, apart from the problems that were magnified

it is no wonder that in specific areas of the centre, more than 85% of the buildings

during the crisis period such as the permanent closure of several businesses due to the

Renovation as a project

29 Perhaps the only buildings without balconies in Athens.

30 Ibid 24

26

are in need of renovation interventions, and more than 60% of them in order to be in

28 Ibid 7

fig 1.10

inability of sustenance, office space buildings in the centre had already experienced a

1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

31 As it is analyzed in the next chapter, office buildings were adjusted to the Greek socioeconomic context, and were organized internally in small office units.

32 For instance, the neglection of office space in specific areas of the city of Amsterdam. See Hilde Therese Remøy, Out of Office: A Study on the Cause of Office Vacancy and Transformation as a Means to Cope and Prevent (Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press, 2010).

29

former crisis. This has to do with the contemporary and changing needs of companies, such as larger facilities or different interior organization.33 Thus during the late 80’s several companies, such as big newspapers, or new multinational groups, relocated in new contemporary buildings outside of the centre. This was based on the liberalization of the financial system of Greece, that led to an overproduction of office spaces in the periphery of the city during the 90s.34 The overgrowth bubble burst in the next decade leading to the decrease of prices on office space and the production of vacant space.35 It is also important to note that the new geography of this overproduction of office space buildings, created new office ‘centralities’, in linear fashion, along the major avenues outside of the centre.36 This also affected a lot the choice of locating a business, since before the inauguration of the metro, in a society heavily based on the personal vehicle, going to the centre was a difficult task.37 Being the typology most heavily affected by the condition of vacancy is a reason in itself to render the Postwar office building the focus of a research. As it will be presented in the next chapters, the Postwar office building presents certain qualities which enable it to overcome partially some of the existing problems that maintain vacancy such as the issue of fragmented property, and scale. Moreover, it presents architectural and urban features that render its urban performance strategic for the city, which could be instrumentalised to address the filling of vacant space. Thus, in this thesis, it is claimed that there are several other reasons to consider these office buildings as an exceptional part of the vacant building stock of Athens, and consequently the type on which this research will focus.

33 Even in the 70’s open plan layouts were not so common to be found in office buildings.

34 “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012), p.167 35 For more information see: Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Crisis of the Office Market in Athens. An Interpretative Approach,” Aeichoros 4, no. 2 (n.d.): 4–33.

36 This is elaborated in chapter 3 and is linked to the decentralisation process that the city underwent before and after the Olympic games.

37 Several big companies kept their headquarters for symbolic reasons in the city centre while the majority of their production was located in the periphery. See: “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012), p.170

30

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1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

31

fig 1.11 Office building in Athinas & Eupolidos Street source: Author

32

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1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

33

fig 1.12 Office building in Patision & Veranzerou Street, 1964, I. Rizos source: Author

34

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1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

35

fig 1.13 Office building in Sokratous Str, 1957, Th. Valentis. source: Author

36

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1. The Vacant Building Stock of Athens

37

2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

In Greek architectural bibliography postwar office buildings are examined

mainly in comparison to the attributes of their western precedents and the way these were implemented in the local context. Thus, their reading is focused on the diversions from the original. Although this chapter does not completely divert from this method, at the same time the analysis that will follow will try to also understand these ‘diversions’ as independent ‘indigenous’ elements. This is based on the fact that the exceptional characteristics found on this building type, are actually repeated with great consistency in its several variations. Having this as an entry point, the chapter will examine how and why these features were created, and what is their relation to the city. This will allow to define the Athenian postwar office building independently, and most importantly to understand its use-value for a potential “reprogramming” of the city’s vacant space.

2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

39

2.1 Postwar Reconstruction of Athens.

At the end of World War II several European cities lay in ruins. In contrast to the rest of Europe, where the state was in charge of mass production of housing and other projects, the post-war reconstruction of Greece was almost entirely based on the private sector.1 This story, which is extensively studied, concerns the ‘aparmentalisation’ of Athens, by the polikatoikia unit.2 Through antiparochi,3 in effect a quid pro quo system, the welfare-state was substituted by the private construction industry, which led to the progressive urbanization of Athens.4 Still, in that same period there is another parallel story related to the transformation of the Athenian centre into the administrative, political and financial core of the city, but also of the country. The foundations of this project lie in another typology, - the Post-war office building - which despite the dominance of the polikatoikia, had a crucial role fig 2.1-2

in the formation of the centre of Athens.5 Established in the center due to the rapid development of the tertiary sector, postwar office buildings are linked with the aggressive substitution of 19th century neoclassical and interwar mansions, which had a radical impact on the image of the city.6 Still, although they played a major role turning Athens into what K. Frampton coined as “the modern city par-excellence”,7 their architectural value and features lack the adequate attention and analysis.

2.2 Towards a definition. (Analysis in 3 parts) The most prominent feature of the Postwar office building is the vertical organization of its volume in three parts. This, seemingly classical, tripartite composition of base-core-crowning is expressed by the ground floor arcade, the main floors of the building, and the one or more recessed floors in the upper part. This organization and its subsequent uses (commerce, office space, dwelling), as it will be argued play an important role for the city. The following paragraphs will try to further analyze these features through the specific context in which they were produced, in order to make clear that they refer to specific rules that govern this type, that is, building regulations and legislations of which the form is a direct outcome.

fig 2.1 First Office Buildings in Omonoia Square, 1962 fig 2.2 Omonoia Square in the 80’s

2 The unfolding of this project can be divided in three phases. The first one (1949-57), is a transitional period, where the reconstruction of Athens begins, after the end of the Greek Civil War (1946-49).

The second phase (1957-67), or the “contractors’ era” includes the massive reformation of the centre of Athens. The third one (1967-75) refers to the 7-year military coup (1967-74) and its consequent unregulated capitalistic magnification of the Greek economy and urban space. The division here is based on the reading and elaborated analysis of architecture historian H. Fessas. See: Helen Fessa-Emmanouil, Essays on Neohellenic Architecture (Athens: Privately published, 2001).

3 Antiparochi: a private agreement (with no legal value), according to which a landowner would exchange his plot with one or more apartments in a block to be built on the site. This system would allow for the small or medium budget contractors to avoid investing big amounts of capital or being taxed and the plot owners to upgrade their financial and dwelling conditions.

4 Specifically, the state functioned as an un-seen mediator, providing a legislative framework that would allow for a seemingly informal mechanism of producing housing. On the creation of Athens as a bio-political project see: Platon Issaias, “The Absence of Plan as a Project : On the Planning Development of Modern Athens : 1830-2010,” in The City as a Project, ed. Pier Vittorio Aureli (Berlin: Ruby Press, 2013).

5 The bibliography and the work done so far for the post-war office building type is never treating it as an independent topic. Most of the scholars have placed it under much broader topics such as Postwar architecture, Neohellenic architecture, Prestige architecture and so on, and have not elaborated on the type per se. It is important to note that authors such as H. Fessa and D. Philippidis have mostly extracted their material from F. Loyer the French historian that wrote the first and most complete research on Greek modern architecture.

Consequently, this work has been a major source for the current research. See Francois Loyer, “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966)” (Université de Paris / Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1966). Also, a large research gap on the postwar period was filled by P. Tsakopoulos, where office buildings are mentioned again as part of monographies of prominent architects of the time. See: Panagiotis Tsakopoulos, Reflections on greek postwar architecture (Athens: Ekdoseis Kaleidoskopio, 2014).

6

sources: Agency of United Photojournalists, National Historical Museum Archive

See Appendix 1

7 Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, Greek (Athens: Themelio, 1999): 14

https://urbanlife.gr/urban-city/o-dromeas-tou-kosta-varotsou/

40

1 This was done in parallel with the promotion of prosperity and consumerism models, economically supported by the United States under the Marshall plan. See: Stelios Zachariou, “Implementing the Marshall Plan in Greece: Balancing Reconstruction and Geopolitical Security,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 27, no. 2 (2009): 303–18.

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2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

41

a. Main Body The main body of the building is used as office space, and is what defines it through the characteristics of the façade. Although, the floor plans present a certain complexity due to the small plots of 19th century Athens, still certain principles can be observed.

For instance, the layout of each floor consists of the repetition of rather small office units, arrayed in parallel to the main façades, and accessed through in-between connecting corridors. Moreover, the position of the akaluptos (uncovered space)8, which operates as a lightwell, depending on the plot (infill or corner).9 Characteristic of these plans is also the introduction of a s secondary zones, including communal toilets and the vertical circulation core.10 Structure-wise, the complexity of these a-typical layouts is manifested in the not so regular structural grids, and variation of columns. Lastly, in relation to the office units, the size of the main unit is linked to the width of the structural grid, and is formed by a main space and an anteroom used as a reception area. In most cases the layout of the plan was supporting the local socioeconomic model of numerous small companies. This was also expressed

fig 2.3 Kalligas Megaron, Karagiorgi Servias Street, 1959, E. Vourekas source: Loyer, Francois. “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” Université de Paris / Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1966.

42

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fig 2.3

in the facades of the main body, with several neon signs and company logos.

2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

8 Akalyptos is the void space in the back side of a plot defined by the permitted building coverage ratio.

9 In the case of the corner plots, the uncovered is positioned in its antidiametric corner. Depending the size of the plot this can create an internal façade, which allows for more office units. In the case of the in-between plots, the largest part of uncovered space is located on the backside of the plot, and provides a second façade.

10 There are some exceptions, where the toilets are located inside each office unit, separating it from the circulation corridor.

43

44

#1 Megaron Poulou Bros Omonoia Square Th. Valentis 1958

#4 Office Megaron Likourgou & Sokratous I. Rizos 1961

#2 Office Megaron Sokratous 48 Th. Valentis 1957

#5 Megaron TADKY Ag. Kostantinou Georgiadis, Vrettos 1968

#3 Megaron TEKA Akadimias 57 R. Koutsouris 1960

#6 Megaron A. Soutsou Pesmatzoglou & Akadimias E. Vourekas 1959

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45

0

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b. Base The base is a commercial zone on the ground floor, usually of one or one and a half

Ground floor commercial shops

floors high. It consists of small shops with independent access and the entrance towards the vertical circulation of the building. Contrary to an imposing lobby, the entrance towards the upper floors of the building is squeezed in order to provide more space for commercial speculation.11 The shop units have a mezzanine and an underground level all of which are connected via a continuous spiral staircase.12 Still, the most prominent feature of the building’s base is the arcade.

External arcade: fig 2.4

The external arcade, parallel to the roadside, is a typical urban element of downtown Athens. In fact, this was implemented in 1956, to ameliorate the traffic congestion issue, which emerged during the intense redevelopment of the city.13 The aim was to widen the main streets, but since expropriation was not possible14, the solution came by relocating the pavements inside the construction lines of buildings, creating a covered passage in their ground floor. Although a conflictual measure,15 what

fig 2.4 Office building in Likourgou & Sokratous Street, 1961, I. Rizos

matters is that it had an immense impact on the urban scale.16 An important side

source: Personal Archive of Iason Rizos.

54

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2. The Athenian Post-war Office Building

11 It could be argued that in the case of an internal arcade, it would actually make up for that loss, giving a more prestigious touch to the building.

12 The units have approximately the same size which takes up 2/3 of the base’s height. The underground space has the same imprint, and is used as storage space, including the WC. 13 ΒΔ 05-09-1956, “Περί τροποποιήσεως του σχεδίου Αθηνών και κατασκευής στοών”, (Law on the modification of the plan of Athens and the construction of arcades) 14 The proposal of widening the roads was something discussed also in earlier years, but there was severe reaction by landowners.

See: Kostas Biris, Ai Aithinai, Apo Ton 19on Eis Ton 20on Aiona (Athens-from the 19th to the 20th Century) (Athens: Melissa, 1996).

Thus, there was firstly an implementation of the arcade approach along selected roads until their catholic implementation in 1956.

15 Kostas Kitsikis was arguing for the partial loss of profitable space, but also from an urban point of view he was indicating that since the reconstruction had already started, this measure would take years until it had its intended results. Instead, P. Vasileiadis indicated that roadside arcades not only served the public benefit, but they also multiplied the benefits of owners, making their shops more approachable. See: Kostas Kitsikis, “The Arcades of Athens,” Architektoniki, no. 1 (1957): p. 54 and Prokopis Vasileiadis, “Stoes Stin Athina (Arcades in Athens),” Zygos, no. 90 (1963).

16 Perhaps one of the few times that building regulations were treating the unit as part of a larger whole.

55

fig 2.5

effect of this measure is the trimmed corner. In order to facilitate, turning vehicles at crossroads, the chamfering of the ground floor pavement was applied. Paradoxically this was implemented in the whole volume of the building, meaning that its corner had to be subtracted until the level of the recessed floors.17 Internal arcade: Contrary to the mandatory implementation of roadside arcades, the internal arcades

fig 2.6

were left to private initiatives. Driven by the maximization of storefront area, and not by an urban consciousness of their contractors, they took the form of rather dark passages, yet full of shops and life. Paradoxically enough it is a case where the aim to multiply profitable space, produced a space that was lacking from the city due to exactly the same reason. In relation to the postwar office building, the arcade has a twofold spatial importance worth of further examination.

Firstly, as a locus in the city, a place with a specific identity and history, that renders the office building that hosts it an urban artefact.18 This has to do with the thematic character of the arcades.19 Moreover, themes could also be directly linked to the main use of the offices of the floors above. For this reason, one could find printshops in a building with insurance companies, or translating and typewriting services under offices with law firms.20 Thus, there is an interdependence between the two parts of the building affecting its urban performance.21 This is also enhanced by the role of the arcade as an extension of public space inside the building, a place for break, meeting and interaction for both shop owners, people working in the office floors, and passers-by.

The second reason is its role as a passage.22 Having more than one entrances/exits

fig 2.7

they connect main roads, and form a network of arcades operating in combination with the existing pedestrian routes of the city. In some cases, one can find urban blocks with more than three connected arcades.23 Thus, office buildings can be seen as active fragments of the city, that trigger a different type of circulation. It could be argued then, that the performance of postwar office buildings as nodes on this parallel network, clearly differentiates them from other types. An illustrative example of this twofold spatial importance of internal arcades, is the ‘Megaron TEKA’, also known as ‘Opera arcade’.24 It is a thematical arcade hosting classical music stores and the homonym cinema and is also connected with other arcades. Situated next to the former building of the Greek National Opera, and in combination with other

fig 2.5 Office building in Stadiou & Pesmatzoglou Street, 1960, E. Vourekas, P. Vasiliadis, P. Sakellarios

cinemas around the area, it operates as a sort of cultural hub in the city.

source: Neohellenic Architecture Archives, E. Vourekas section.

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17 On the issue of the corner see: P. Xanthakis, “In Regards to Arcades,” Architektoniki, no. 5 (1957): p. 62.

18 In the way Aldo Rossi defines it in the “Architecture of the City”.

19 For example, there were specific arcades where one could find shops for electrical devices service, or other for goldsmiths and watchmakers, or shops and activities related to the film industry. Examples in respective order: Stoa Tristrato (access from Dragatsaniou, Aristidou, or Stadiou str), Stoa Kalliga (access from K. Serbias or Stadiou str), Stoa Pantazopoulou/Hollywood (access from Akadimias or Klisovis str). The use of internal arcades also gave birth to very peculiar themes, such as the buying and selling of collectible items like rare coins, stamps, and medals, which were benefited by the architecture of the arcade that protected the storefronts from the sun.

Stoa Orfanidou (access from Stadiou str).

20 Stoa Anatolis (double entrance from Aristidou str), Stoa Santaroza (access from Santaroza or Stadiou str).

21 This is also one of the reasons why several arcades were deserted. For instance, when the offices of a building were left vacant, the theme of the arcade could hardly sustain itself.

22 As a matter of fact, several arcades are a result of office buildings that were constructed next to existing buildings with arcades.

23 For example, Stoa Santaroza (access from Santaroza or Stadiou str) is created by connecting two office buildings designed by T. Valentis. Santaroza 1 str (1954) and Stadiou 48 str (1956).

24 Megaron TEKA (1960), Akadimias 57 str, architect: Rennos Koutsouris. see case study #3.

57

58

fig 2.6 Interior Arcade in Omonoia Square

fig 2.7 Network of Arcades in Downtown Athens

source: Alfredo Brillembourg et al., eds., Reactivate Athens (Berlin: Ruby Press, 2017).

source: Anaplasi AE, “Urban Renewal of the Center of Athens. Competition Data Booklet� (Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, 2019).

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c. Crest The upper part of the building consists of one or more recessed floors and the roof terrace. The floors were intended for office spaces or for dwellings. Again, fig 2.8

this staggered crest, is not a choice, but a consequence of legislation. Specifically, it is an outcome of height regulations, in order to allow for adequate lightning in the surroundings.25 Contrary to the prestigious appearance of the main façade, the recessed one consisted of an average plastered wall with openings towards the terraces.26 Regarding the plan, it follows the layout of the typical floors, with a shrinking of the office units in the main façade. Especially in smaller plots, it is

fig 2.9

common for these floors to host dwellings, which would alter the plan accordingly.27 These were designed to accommodate either the owner of the building, which was also common to be the contractor, either residencies for professionals, or a flat for the concierge of the building.28 An exceptional building that celebrates this particular characteristic is the project by Aristomenis Provelenghios at Ermou street (1962).29 Specifically, the crest is a metal structure, that was constructed independently after the completion of the main building. Hence, the crest is perceived as an autonomous

fig 2.10

entity in terms of material, structure, and design.

It is evident that these buildings are a direct outcome of legislations, that heavily defined its morphology. Depending on the way one looks at it, the contextual limitations generated imitations of their western role models through typical ‘a-typical’ plans, or a distinct type, that is, the Athenian Postwar Office Building. In any case, what is important here is the use-value of this typology, identified in its tripartite structure. This creates a ‘difficult whole’, where its constituent parts are linked but can operate also independently in the city.30 This can be extracted as an organizational diagram that can be instrumentalised towards a renovation approach, regardless of their future use. Contrary to the originality of this feature, the main facade of office buildings desperately tried to imitate its western role models. In the following paragraphs, i will try to present how facades affectd the evolution of the

fig 2.8 Recessed floors in Office Buildings, Athens 2020

type, and how this is linked with its current energy related pathogenies.

source: Author

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25 According to the building regulations of that period (GOK 1955) a distinction was made between the maximum height of the building and its façade. The height difference of these two parameters, which depended on the width of the streets and their location, it would generate the recessed floors of a building, which were then codified by a steady step-back of 2,5 meters per floor. For an elaborated comparative study on the building regulations in Greece, before and after the WW2 see: Christoforos Sakellaropoulos, “Monterna Architektoniki Kai Politiki Tis Astikis Anoikodomisis Athina 1945-1960 (Modern Architecture and the Politics of the Urban Reconstruction Athens 1945-1960)” (Athens, NTUA, 1993).

26 In most cases the rhythm of the openings and their location would follow the grid of the main façade.

27 In the polikatoikia type, these last recessed floors also known as retire, were (and still are) identified with the most privileged apartments, and had significantly modified floor plans from the rest of the building.

28 Some examples are: Megaron TEKA - Akadimias 57 str (R. Koutsouris,1960), MTA megaron – Akadimias 27 str (T. Valentis, 1949), Megaron Voukourestiou & Solonos str (T. Zenetos, 1969), Megaron Sarantopoulou - Ermou & Nikis str (E. Vourekas 1962), Office megaron - Kapnikarea square (N. Valsamakis, 1959).

29 Francois Loyer notes that this is probably the first proper application of the curtain-wall technology in Greece. See: Loyer, “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” p.1007 30 In several cases although upper office floors (main body) were vacant even before the crisis period, ground floor shops and dwellings on the recessed floors were active.

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fig 2.9 Megaron TEKA, Akadimias 57 Street,1960, R. Koutsouris Concierge’s flat in recessed floor.

fig 2.10 Office Building, Ermou street 8, 1962, A. Provelenghios

source: Neohellenic Architecture Archives, R. Koutsouris section

source: Author

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2.3 Facade Categories The architecture of postwar office buildings can be summarized in two major trends, which are defined by the characteristics of the façade in the main part of the building. The first category has to do with a more plastic treatment of the façade based on the exposition of the functional and structural grid. The second category, which is introduced around a decade later, is the implementation of the curtain-wall technology.

Category 1 The first category is introduced, developed and established by a very prominent

32 This can be summarized by the office buildings he realized during the decade 1949-1959 in the center of Athens.

figure of Greek modern architecture, Thoukydidis Valentis31. Consequently, any

33 Valentis believed that flexibility should be the primary and undisputed quality for this type of buildings. Thoukidides Valentis, “Morphology of Office Buildings Theoretical and Applied Introduction to the Architecture of Office Buildings” Architektoniki, no. 21 (1960), and Architektoniki, no. 22–23 (1960).

elaboration on this category should commence through his work on this type.32 His basic design principle, the ‘rhythm’, is a rational grid system applied on the façade, which aims to merge the functional and structural grid of the building, in order to achieve internal flexibility.33 The first project where this is applied is the MTA fig 2.11

Megaron (Airforce Share Fund, 1949).34 Shops, offices, and dwellings are organized in an ensemble that inaugurates the birth of the type.35 The consistency of Valentis rational system, allowed him to produce several variations, highlighting the vertical or horizontal elements of the façade or sometimes both through a more neutral grid. No matter the case, we can identify specific innovative features. The first group

fig 2.12

of projects36 follows the MTA megaron model, according to which the rhythm of the structural grid is dictated by the width of office units, highlighting the structural

fig 2.13-15

elements.37 In the second group of projects38, in order for form to follow a more flexible function, the rhythm becomes denser but always as a subdivision of the

fig 2.16-17

unit width and structure, but this time it is extruded in order to receive prefabricated

the Greek climate.42 Although the concrete blinds, and the cellular facades with their depth provided a certain protection from the sun, one cannot argue that Valentis was concerned with energy efficiency issues. 43 As Philippidis indicates, these facades were implemented regardless of the orientation of the building, and had to do mostly with practical and financial reasons.44 For example, the Corbusian casted volumes

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37 What is evident from these projects onwards, is that the clarity and the correspondence of the plan to the façade is limited to the main zone of office spaces.

39 Fundamental here is the role of the sphenoid profiles that Valentis designs for the homogenization of structural and additional vertical elements.

a brise-soleil concrete structure, which seemed to be a very compatible approach for

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36 Agiou Konstantinou 6 & Sokratous str (1953), Santaroza 1 str (1954). fig 2.12

group of projects40 the rhythm of the grid returns to the matching between office

If one is to extract a certain value out of this category, it is the use of the façade as

Architect Thoukydides P. Valentis). Athens: AUTh-Nisos-Mpenaki Museum, 2007.

35 Despite the classical features of the design, the building plays an important role for the evolution of Greek modern architecture, since it managed to unlock the conservative ambience of the transitional first post-war period, and triggered several architects to adopt a more radical vocabulary. For more information on its role as a mediator between interwar and post-war modernism see: Helen Fessa-Emmanouil, Essays on Neohellenic Architecture (Athens: Privately published, 2001). p.159, and Savas Condaratos, “Apo Tin Genia Tou 30’ Stin ‘Genia’ Tou 50’. Sunexeies Kai Asunexeies Ston Elliniko Arxitektoniko Monternismo (From the Generation of the 30’s to the Generation of the 50’s. Continuities and Disruptions in Greek Architecture Modernism,” Themata Chorou Kai Technon (Design + Art in Greece), no. 29 (1998).

38 Patision 4 str (1955), Stadiou 48 str (1956), Sokratous 48 str (1957). fig 2.13-15

functions”.41

source: Sachana, Samouilidou, Stefanidou, Tsitiridou. O Architektonas Thoukydides P. Valentis (The

34 This building is important for several reasons. Not only it is his first office building but probably one of the first examples of such buildings in the post-war period. It utilises the tripartite vertical division for different functions, even before the obligatory implementation of the arcades in the ground floor.

basic office unit, making a façade compatible with more office layouts.39 In the last

elements (‘thin-walls’), or as A. Antoniadis puts it, “a cellular external cover for the internal

fig 2.11 M.T.A Office Megaron, Akadimias 27 Street, T. Valentis, 1949

31 T. Valentis (1908-1982) was an already established architect known for his work during the interwar period.

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40 Omonoia Square & Panepistimiou (1958), Themistokleous & Akadimias (1958). fig 2.16-18 41 Antonis Antoniadis, Synchroni Elliniki Architektoniki (Contemporary Greek Architecture) (Athens: Anthropos + Choros, 1979). The thin-wall (in Greek: λεπτότοιχος) was made out of aluminum and glass, including a ventilation socket and would manage to merge traditional methods (cast concrete) with more industrialized solutions.

42 The majority of the modernist architects of that period, were highly influenced by the work of Le Corbusier and especially the projects concerning Mediterranean and even tropical climates.

43 The eligibility of this brutalist version of brise-soleil, and its superiority to the curtain wall technology, for the context and climate of Greece is also underlined in an article by Valentis written as an ode to Le Corbusier. “A tribute to the memory of Le Corbusier” ANA 79_63, Neo-Hellenic Architecture Archive. The text is the manuscript from Valentis lecture on the conference organized by the Technical chamber of Greece (TEE) to commemorate the death of Le Corbusier. See also: “Stin Mnimi Tou Le Corbusier (In Memory of Le Corbusier),” Technika Chronika, no. 8 (1965): 45–55.

44 Dimitris Philippides, Neoelliniki Arhitektoniki (Modern Greek Architecture) (Athens: Melissa, 1984). P.274

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2.12 Santaroza 1, 1954

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2.13 Patission 4, 1955

2.14 Sokratous 48, 1957

2.15 Stadiou 48, 1956

2.16 Omonoia Square & Panepistimiou, 1958

2.17 Akadimias & Themistokleous, 1958

fig 2.12- 2.14 Office Buildings, T. Valentis

fig 2.15- 2.17 Office Buildings, T. Valentis

source: Sachana, Samouilidou, Stefanidou, Tsitiridou. O Architektonas Thoukydides P. Valentis (The

source: Sachana, Samouilidou, Stefanidou, Tsitiridou. O Architektonas Thoukydides P. Valentis (The

Architect Thoukydides P. Valentis). Athens: AUTh-Nisos-Mpenaki Museum, 2007.

Architect Thoukydides P. Valentis). Athens: AUTh-Nisos-Mpenaki Museum, 2007.

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were easier to use since concrete was a material that provided fast construction, cheap labor, and most importantly it was an already established method since the interwar period.45 In the end, the standardization of details and systematization in Valentis’ projects, allowed for a sort of industrialization adjusted to the existing context, that rendered this approach paradigmatic.46 The examples that followed, even by prominent architects, would not take in consideration the climatic value in Valentis approach.

Thus, further elaborations were focusing on a sort of aestheticization of the brise soleil facade, with cladding by different and more formal materials such as marble or aluminum, that would render the buildings appropriate for a wider spectrum of clients.47 Category 2 The emergence of the second category coincides with the introduction of the international style and its technological innovations. Although its neutral and rational vocabulary did not really flourish due to the climatic conditions of Greece, paradoxically in the case of office buildings it was an instant match. As D. Porfyrios notes, the corporate symbolism of the curtain-wall, due to its preexisting international codifying through Mies, was inevitable not to be adopted by local multinational or smaller Greek companies.48 fig 2.18

The first known attempt to apply the curtain-wall was by N. Valsamakis in the office building in Kapnikarea square (1958-59). Out of respect for the facing church, Valsamakis designed the façade of the building as a neutral background, formed by alternations of transparent and filled pieces. Again, the use of marble has its honorary position, as Philippidis puts it, its use tranquilized the “hunters of Greekness”, in order to enable him to experiment with this new method. Thus, 49

without being provocative, this building is where for the first time the technology of curtain-wall is confronted with the particularities of the Athenian postwar office building. Consequently, its continuous application is disrupted horizontally due to the chamfered corners and vertically by the arcade level.50 As N. Kalogeras notes, although it was a very difficult corner plot (external and internal corner), by freeing the façade from the structural elements, a very regular structural grid is created providing a completely ‘free’ plan.51 Another example worth mentioning is the building in Syntagma square (1962) by Dimitris Papazisis. If the first attempt of introducing a more industrialized version

fig 2.18 Office building in Kapnikarea & Ermou Street, N. Valsamakis, 1958-59

of office buildings went unnoticed, this case was quite the opposite, triggering

source: “Office Building in Kapnikareas Square, Nicos Valsamakis,” Architektoniki, no. 21 (1960).

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45 Dimitris Porfyrios, “I Monterna Architektoniki Stin Ellada 19501975 (Modern Architecture in Greece 1950-1975),” Themata Chorou Kai Technon (Design + Art in Greece), no. 10 (1979). p. 22.

46 This enabled several architects to follow this direction, and to a certain extent rendered it mainstream.

47 The practice of wrapping with more expensive materials was also a way to have a more cosmopolitan appearance, without paying the higher costs of constructing with the curtain-wall system.

Especially the use of marble was a common practice, through the method of horizontal marble-cladding used in several buildings of E. Vourekas, in order to satisfy the dominant ‘standards of Greekness’.

Maro Kardamitsi-Adami, ed., O Kosmos Tou Emmanouil Voureka (The World of Emmanouil Vourekas) (Athens: Ekdotikos Oikos Melissa : Mouseio Benaki, 2012), p. 110 48 Dimitris Porfyrios, “I Monterna Architektoniki Stin Ellada 19501975 (Modern Architecture in Greece 1950-1975),” Themata Chorou Kai Technon (Design + Art in Greece), no. 10 (1979). p. 20.

49 Dimitris Philippides, Neoelliniki Arhitektoniki (Modern Greek Architecture) (Athens: Melissa, 1984). p. 294 50 Nevertheless, as Valsamakis made clear in the first publication of the project, this was a conscious attempt to adapt the curtain-wall to the means available at the time in Greece. “Office Building in Kapnikareas Square, Nicos Valsamakis,” Architektoniki, no. 21 (1960), Orestis Doumanis, Post-War Architecture in Greece, 1945-1983: Guide (Architecture in Greece Press, 1984). p. 32.

51 Nikos Kalogeras, “I Astiki Polikatoikia Kai i Sinexeia Tou Monternismou Stin Ellada (The Polikatoikia and the Continuation of Moderism in Greece),” Themata Chorou Kai Technon (Design + Art in Greece), no. 29 (1998).

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fierce reaction due to its prominent position.52 According to F. Loyer the building was designed as a manifesto, a conscious imitation of the morphology of the fig 2.19

curtain-wall, since the outer skin had only a decorative purpose, indicating in this way the pathogenies of Greek construction methods.53 Nevertheless, here for the first time, the internal organization of office space is realized through flexible light partitions made from ‘dry’ construction materials.54 After the official inauguration of the curtain-wall in Greece, several architects tried to incorporate solutions with industrial materials, to the extent that it was possible. An interesting case is the work

fig 2.20-21

of Iason Rizos, with the codifying of details, that allowed their use in several similar projects.55 The story of the curtain-wall office buildings is a struggle of architects to reach the standards of its western models. Although this pushed the limits of local means, the problem is that while most efforts were focusing on overcoming the obstacles of the construction technology, minimum effort was put concerning the adaptability on the climate and socioeconomic context. For instance, although the separation of facades from structure enabled an open plan, the conventional structure of the rest of the building does not allow for a general climatization through the use of advanced mechanical systems. Even if it did, the exposed façade and open plan layout, was not compatible with the existing model of several small companies per building.

On the other hand, although it is true that to some extent, the extruded brise-soleil grid of the previous category implies a certain ‘Mediterranean sensibility’, it did not have the chance to be further elaborated towards a climatic project. In the following decades, where fragmentation of units was still the case, due to the radical change of climatic conditions but also the easiness of acquiring an A/C unit, these exposed façades were transformed into air-condition canvases. Apart from the conflictual relationship between architecture and mechanical equipment that is evident in the vertical sections of the buildings, their a posteriori colonization is also evident in other parts of the buildings such as roof terraces, which are actually transformed into life support systems.56

52 Located in the most formal square of the capital, there were numerous reactions by the public opinion, the press, and even politicians of the time concerning its aesthetic incompatibility, leading to the temporal suspension of its construction. For a detailed account on the outcry around Papazisis office building see: Loyer, “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” p. 1008-1010.

As Loyer describes the press was talking about “the massacre of the unity of the square”. See also a response at the time from the architecture community: “Comments Section,” Architektoniki, no. 34 (1962): 5, and 53 Loyer, “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” p.1009 54 This was realized in collaboration with Takis Zenetos. See endnote 137, page 395 in Fessa-Emmanouil, Essays on Neohellenic Architecture. Zenetos’ affiliation with internal flexible and dry material partitions can be also seen in other projects, see: Takis Zenetos, “Linear Office Layout,” Themata Chorou Kai Technon (Design + Art in Greece), no. 4 (1974): 84.

55 It was common at the time to have patents for profiles of industrial materials such as metal. Interview with his son architect Dimitris Rizos (07-01-2020) 56 According to Banham, this conflictual relationship was also apparent in what in this context is perceived as the ‘ideal precedent’.

Still, for the purposes of this research this will not be debated. See: Reyner Banham, The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment, 2nd ed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).

fig 2.19 Office building in Syntagma square, 1962, D. Papazisis. source: Loyer, Francois. “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” Université de Paris / Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1966.

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fig 2.20 Office building in Likourgou & Sokratous Street, 1961, I. Rizos

fig 2.21 Office building in Patision & Veranzerou Street, 1964, I. Rizos

source: Personal Archive of Iason Rizos.

source: Loyer, Francois. “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” Université de Paris / Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1966.

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2.4 The third way Previously we saw the two categories according to the facades and how they were implemented in relation to the limitations of the construction environment of Greece. The main issue detected is the adaptation to local climatic conditions. Either by pretending that the curtain-wall could operate without the artificially regulated interior climate, that actually defined it, or by focusing only on the aestheticization of the brise-soleil, this has backfired on the architecture of the buildings and their energy performance, quite more evidently than in other typologies. The question here is, if one considers the Athenian postwar office building type, as a case worth to indulge in, is it possible to instrumentalise its qualities, towards a climatic project of modern architecture? Moreover, since this concerns existing buildings of a certain value, how can this project be incorporated in renovation practices? Before responding to this, the following paragraphs will examine some more case studies that have certain qualities which hint towards this direction.

1. Layers- protection as a second façade.

The first group of projects deals with the issue of sun protection through the method of layering. Specifically, through the use of blinds or the brise-soleil, a second façade couples the main one in order to provide a protection layer. Such an fig 2.23

example is the N.A.T Office Megaron (1968).57 The building, designed by OPAM, a team formed by four prominent architects of that period, had the latest technology in several of its aspects.58 Apart from the curtain-wall façade and the interchangeable office partitions, it included a very radical for the time shading system, made out of glass panels arrayed in parallel to the façade on Acadimias street. (image 23) Another example worth mentioning is the Administration building of the Hellenic

fig 2.22

Railways Organization (OSE), designed in 1966 and built in 1972 by S. Molfessis and Th. Papayannis.59. Here a second façade is formed as an external curtain-wall.

The metallic framework is coupled with rolling shutters for sun protection, leaving a gap between them and the glazed windows of the internal façade. (image 24) In a similar way, D. Tripodakis treats the building in the corner of Patision & Kapodistriou street in 1970. Designed after the OSE building but completed before, it also has a framework, a second aluminum facade that operates as a brise-soleil.

The denser grid, protects but also enables bigger glazed windows for the inner limit of the building.

fig 2.22 Administration building of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE), 1972, S. Molfessis &Th. Papayannis fig 2.23 N.A.T Office Megaron, 1968, OPAM Collaborative

2. Loggia- protection thorough multiple layers.

source: Orestis Doumanis, Post-War Architecture in Greece, 1945-1983: Guide (Architecture in Greece Press, 1984).

The second group of projects deals with the issue of sun protection through the use

-

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57 The building is situated at Acadimias & Omirou str, and owned by the Mariners’ Insurance Fund.

58 OPAM: E. Vourekas, K. Dekavallas, A. Georgiadis, V. Grigoriadis. The sensibility of the project towards climatic conditions is justified by the participation of Konstantinos Dekavallas. Apart from an exceptional architect of his generation, he is one of the few Greek postwar architects that got engaged with passive solutions in architecture, which he developed during his time in the Form and Climate group at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture.

59 Sthenis Molfessis and Thymios Papayannis, “Kenrika Grafeia Tou OSE Stin Athina (Office Building in Athens),” Architektonika Themata (Architectural Issues), no. 7 (1973).

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of the loggia. Basically, layering takes dimensions, it acquires depth, and gives more operation potentials to the façades. Additionally, the introduction of depth allows for consequent layers of protection to be introduced according to will. The loggia an archetype of traditional architecture- although banal and quite contradictory for a type such as the office building, allows for a degrade, that can be beneficial in many aspects. As Loyer points out60, the work of Takis Zenetos, is paradigmatic of this approach, and even if he did not manage to apply it directly to office buildings, it is worth examining. As Papanastasiou notes, one of Zenetos’ design principles among others is “Exposure to sunlight and protection from the solar heat and glare”.61 Two of his buildings, the polikatoikias in Kallisperi street (1958), and in Amalias avenue (1959), can be understood as one continuous elaboration of this principle. fig 2.24-27

The basic idea of the architect in both projects is the disruption of the façade as a clear exterior envelope. What is in and what is out is radically reinterpreted through a series of dynamic limits that deal separately with aspects of view, sun, sound, and insulation. As he writes himself, the variability of these elements provides a constant transformation of the environment depending on the state of the user, the season, the sun, the temperature and so on.62 In the first case, this is done through three consequent layers. The first one, on the outer limit of the building, is a curtain that provides visual protection but without blocking the light and air.

The second incorporates a structure for exterior lightning. The last layer includes the system of guides for all the dark and translucent sliding panels doors, but in

2.24

significant recession. In the second project, Zenetos tried to completely reinterpret

2.26

the closed polikatoikia box. The unification of the outer limit of the loggias through a framework with sliding tinted glass panels, creates a dynamic second skin, that enables the architect to produce a fully transparent glass building that on the same time can be protected at will. This is something that turns the tides regarding the compatibility of glass architecture in a warmer climate.

Contrary to the curtain-wall buildings analysed before, the way in which Zenetos approaches transparency through consequent filters, as Loyer explains, is more 2.25

realistic because it accepts the climatic necessities of the context.63 An example

2.27

fig 2.28

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that tries to adopt this method is the office megaron, also known as Michail Lemou Arcade.64 The building was designed by K. Dekavallas between 1960-1962 but

63 Loyer, “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” p.1013

apparently the final design of the facades was re-assigned to P. Mylonas, giving

64 The building (Stadiou str 10), is a large L shaped plot, basically formed by two smaller plots on two separate streets, hence the second façade in Omirou street

conditions, through the loggia approach, which enables him to experiment with

source: Orestis Doumanis, ed., Takis Ch. Zenetos 1926-1977 (Architektonika Themata (Architectural Issues), 1978).

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61 A Papanastassiou, “The Architecture of. Τ. Ch. Zenetos.

Principles and Aims,” in Takis Ch. Zenetos 1926-1977 (Architektonika Themata (Architectural Issues), 1978), 8–13.

62 Takis Zenetos and Margaritis Apostolidis, “Polikatoikia Stin Leoforo Amalias (Block of Flats at Amalia Avenue),” Architektoniki, no. 39 (1963): 48.

it a more classical appearance.65 In this project Dekavallas deals with the climatic

fig 2.24-2.25 Apartment Building, Amalias Avenue, T. Zenetos, 1959 fig 2.26-2.27 Apartment Building, Kallisperi Str, T. Zenetos, 1958

60 Loyer, “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” p.1011

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65 Apart from Dekavallas and Mylonas archival material in Neo-Hellenic Architecture Archive, (Benaki Museum), plans of the project were also found in S. Staikos folder, dated 1983.

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2.30

2.31

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fig 2.28 Megaron Stoa M. Laimou, Stadiou 10, Dekavallas, P. Milonas (facade renovation), 1961-62

Facade Stadiou str. fig 2.29 K. Dekavallas, fig 2.30 P. Mylonas fig 2.31 Sun Studies

source: Loyer, Francois. “Architecture de La Grèce Contemporaine (1834-1966).” Université de Paris / Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1966

source: Neohellenic Architecture Archives, K. Dekavallas section, P. Mylonas section.

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several layers of protection. The sun studies found in his archive, are indicative of this.66 Specifically, the three variations play with different shader solutions but also

fig 2.31

with varying depth, showing at the same time how lightning and viewing performs.

Proposition: Layers

In the end a metal structure was chosen, as a continuous plane parallel to the façade, incorporated with shaders and railings. The second internal façade, is formed by continuous glazed windows. Although more conservative than Zenetos, through

fig 2.29

the use of the loggia, Dekavallas accomplishes several features, that are evident even in the realized design by Mylonas. If one skips his stylistic interpretation that

fig 2.30

complicates the façade, what is evident is that apart from its climatic sensibility, it also manages to adapt to the socioeconomic context of the Greek office market. Firstly, the typical interior organization of office space into independent small office units is dealt through individual separation panels that are placed perpendicular to the two planes. The separation panels are following the rhythm of the vertical elements, which is generated, as in most of the offices discussed, through the width of a typical office unit. Secondly, and most importantly, the phenomenon of individualized climatization per unit, that has come to be a major disruptor of Athenian facades, is here easily dealt since one can place it at will behind the balustrade level.

The proposition is based on the design principles of the last façade category, that is, the layering of the building, which responds to both the climatic and socioeconomic context of Athens. Specifically, what is proposed is a passive but also a relatively low-cost and low-tech approach, that reorganizes the building, in order to create different spaces for different use but also installation of mechanical systems. In the context of vacancy and limited resources for intervention, methods such as application of sun shaders which would require advanced construction operations and high purchase and implementation fees are out of the question. Moreover, these design intentions are always under the frame of renovation, meaning buildings already constructed. This is coupled by an intention not to “destroy” their modernist architecture value, but also their relation to the city.

Hence, the layering approach is here implemented, through the creation of a second façade, in reverse. Specifically, a new façade is created by withdrawal, that now defines interior space, and provides for a new exterior or semi exterior space, used as a loggia or with different functions according to building. Depending the budget, developer and user, this new space, gives the opportunity not only for an intervention on the scale of the building but also in a fragmented way, yet one that does not affect the external façade of the building. There are two methods of withdrawal proposed according to the façade category of buildings, as defined earlier, which in turn give different characteristics to the space inside.

66 ANA 106_23, Neo-Hellenic Architecture Archive, (Benaki Museum), One of the few buildings that variations on sun protection were documented.

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3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

As discussed in chapter 1, the vacant building stock of Athens and the apparent condition of ‘emptiness’ is a complex situation. According to the way it is perceived, it points out to different approaches. It is telling of how this transformed urban landscape is perceived and presented in the dominant public discourse. The introduction of the so called “issue of the centre” commences through daily press, where frequent citations on neighborhoods with vacant buildings appear, inaugurating a certain “ghettology”.1 Specifically, with the beginning of the crisis, and the consequent magnification and exposure of former problems, the downfall of these areas was associated with the existence of migrants and other vulnerable groups. This projection of whatever is problematic upon the “Other”, ignores (intentionally or not) the essence of the problems and their causes. As a result, the discussion regarding the solutions for the condition of the centre is always pointing towards two parallel directions: firstly, the aesthetic renewal of public space and secondly the “cleaning” of neighborhoods from their current inhabitants, in order to provide a friendlier environment for future investments.2 Contrary to this cause and effect narrative of the crisis, the degradation of the Athenian centre, is a more complex process already taking place before the economic recession. In order to comprehend this process, and define the problem on its base, one needs to focus not on the centre per se, but to to understand its relationship to the periphery, for which the history of urban planning policies of the last forty years is telling.

3.1 Four decades of failed urbanism, or the crisis before the crisis.

The first time that an “issue of the center” appears, is actually in the late 70’s, due to the accumulation of the pathogenies of the postwar development of the city that fig 3.1

had reached an impasse.3 Central Athens had become an unbearable place to live.4 This resulted to the exodus of a large part of its middle and upper-class inhabitants towards suburban areas, and on the same time brought urban planning and the quality of life in the epicenter of the public discourse. This suburbanization process

3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

1 This takes place at the end of the post-Olympic period around 2007. For a more detailed account see: Katerina Polychroniadis, Penny Koutrolikou, and Maria Kalantzopoulou, “O Kiriarxos Logos gia to Kentro tis Athinas (The Dominant Discourse for the Center of Athens),” Encounter Athens (blog), 2011, https://encounterathens. wordpress.com/2011/05/15/o-κυρίαρχος-λόγος-για-το-κέντροτης-αθήν/, and “Rethink Gentrification: Ambitious Brokers, Fallen Middleclass Men and Modern Plebeians in the Center of Athens,” Kompreser, no. 4 (2012).

2 Dimitra Siatitsa and Penny Koutrolikou, “The Construction of a ‘Public’ Discourse for Athens Centre: Media, Migrants and Inner-City Regeneration” (International RC21 conference, Amsterdam, 2011), https://encounterathens.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/the-constructionof-a-public-discourse-for-athens-centre-media-migrants-and-innercity-regeneration/.

3 Especially in the last phase of the post-war period (Dictatorship), land speculation and construction were magnified due to Law N395/1968, According to it, there was an increase of 30% of the construction factor for the whole country in order to boost the economy.

See: Georgios Sarigiannis, Athina 1830-2000: Ekseliksi, Poleodomia, Metaphores (Athens 1830-2000: Evolution-Planning- Transportation) (Athens: Ekdoseis Symmetria, 2000), p. 211. and Georgios Sarigiannis, “Si Le Bâtiment va Bien, Tout va Bien,” www.greekarchitects. gr, 2012, https://www.greekarchitects.gr/gr/αρχιτεκτονικες-ματιες/ si-le-bâtiment-va-bien-tout-va-bien-αν-η-οικοδομή-πάει-καλά-όλαπαν-καλά-id5869.

4 The city became an urban environment with no public or green spaces, low quality housing, lack of parking, extreme traffic congestion and consequent high levels of air pollution.

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had a direct impact on the centre, with several neighborhoods being neglected.5 This process is what triggered a change of course regarding the urban planning 5 Thomas Maloutas, “The Downgrading of the center of Athens and the Selection of Areas for Living by the Upper and Middle class,” in To Kentro tis Athinas os Politiko Diakiveuma (Athens city centre as a political stake), ed. T Maloutas et al. (Athens: ΕΚΚΕ, 2013).

policies for the city, towards a more centrally organized planning, consolidated

6 Although this change starts in 1979 with the Plan of “Athens 2000”, as G. Sarigiannis notes, the importance of the follow up plan (1983 Regulative Plan), which in reality was not so different, lies in its legal strength that supported its partial but actual realization.

See: Georgios Sarigiannis, “Ta Rithmistika Sxedia Ton Athinon Kai Oi Metavoles Ton Plaision Tous (The Regulative Plans of Athens and Context Variations],” Greekarchitects.gr, 2010, https:// www.https://www.greekarchitects.gr/gr/αρχιτεκτονικες-ματιες/ τα-ρυθμιστικά-σχέδια-αθηνών-και-οι-μεταβολές-των-πλαισίωντους-id3464BD-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9-%CE%BF%CE %B9%CE%BC%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%82-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD%CF%80%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%AF%CF%89 %CE%BD-%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85%CF%82-id3464.

decongestion of Athens and its organization in several smaller centres,7 in parallel

7 For an elaborated analysis of the plan see: Loukas Triantis, “The Spatial Planning Framework for Athens City Centre. Aspects of Strategic and Normative Planning,” Athens Social Atlas, accessed April 30, 2020, https://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/spatial-planning/ 8 This is the first time that the city is theorized as something existing and finite, in need of urban renewal interventions. One of the proposals was the unification of archaeological sites of the city through connective pedestrian roads. The seemingly ideological background was that of planning for public interest, which was heavily supported by the public discourse, in a period when the first socialist government was elected and also the introduction to the E.U was confirmed (1981). See: Vithleem Hastaoglou et al., “Urbanisation, Crisis and Urban Policy in Greece*,” Antipode 19, no. 2 (1987): 154–77.

9 Petros Phokaides, Iris Polyzos, and Loukas Triantis, “Reconsidering the Greater Urbanism Agenda : Crisis, Planning and Architecture in Metropolitan Athens,” MONU, no. 19 Greater Urbanism (2013): 94–99.

10 Costis Hadjimichalis, “Athens’ international role, the lack of planning for the public interest in the city center,” in To Kentro tis Athinas os Politiko Diakiveuma (Athens city centre as a political stake), ed. T Maloutas et al. (Athens: ΕΚΚΕ, 2013).

11 The location of these venues was quite ambiguous since it occupied common space, and reserved land in the Attica region, while on the same time overlooking social but also environmental issues. What was at stake is the implementation of exception policies that diverted from regulatory plans, all justified in the name of the “national urgency” of the forthcoming Olympic games.

12 It is these areas that were abandoned during the exodus of the middle class and were partially re-inhabited by immigrant communities during the early 90s. In parallel, these people contributed as cheap labour force for the construction of the Olympic projects, while at the same time they also supported the demographic revitalization and maintenance of the vacant building stock of central neighbourhoods. Dimitra Siatitsa and Penny Koutrolikou, “The Construction of a ‘Public’ Discourse for Athens Centre: Media, Migrants and Inner-City Regeneration” (International RC21 conference, Amsterdam, 2011), https://encounterathens.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/the-construction-of-a-public-discourse-for-athens-centre-media-migrantsand-inner-city-regeneration/.

13 Evanghelia Chatzikonstantinou, Dimitra Spanou, and Paschalis Samarinis, “The Centre of Athens ‘in Crisis’: in search of critical approaches and alternative practices” (6th International Conference of Critical Geography – ICCG, Frankfurt, 2011), https://encounterathens.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/the-centre-of-athens-in-crisis-insearch-of-critical-approaches-and-alternative-practices/.

14 In the period 1999-2008, 850.000m2 of commercial centers were constructed, of which 339.600m2 only in the north peripheral area (Marousi). In the same time 18% of small shops in the core of the city were closed. See: Costis Hadjimichalis, “Athens’ international role, the lack of planning for the public interest in the city center,” in To Kentro tis Athinas os Politiko Diakiveuma (Athens city centre as a political stake), ed. T Maloutas et al. (Athens: ΕΚΚΕ, 2013).

15 Yannis Aesopos, “Diffused Athens: Networks, Consumerism and Crisis,” in Made in Athens, 2012.

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fig 3.2

by the Regulatory Plan for Athens(1983).6 The basic principles followed were the with the promotion of the historical value of the inner city.8 In order to stabilize the city’s growth the relocation of important activities from the center begins, but despite this, the centre still keeps its productive and administrative character at levels that allow the persistence of its “centrality”.

In the end of the next decade, this decentralization tendency would acquire such a pace that would radically change the urban geography of the Greater Athens Region.9 This is linked with the preparation works for the Olympic Games (2004), which coincide with the introduction of a neo-liberal agenda, one that prioritizes an entrepreneurial logic, in order to strengthen its international role.10 This period can be summarized by infrastructural interventions and the construction of Olympic venues on the periphery of Athens, which had a direct impact on the city centre.

The former includes the construction of the new airport, metro, tram and suburban railway network, and a new peripheral highway (Attiki Odos). The latter includes several sport, accommodation and operational hubs for the events themselves.

These interventions enabled easier connections between periphery and centre and enhanced the growth and autonomy of suburban areas.11 In parallel, through urban renewal projects, the centre was transforming into a patchwork of cultural and leisure spaces, intended for tourists. This operation left other areas in the shadow, demarcating a literal division of Athens into areas inside or outside the Olympic ring.12 Here, for the first time a reorganization of the homogenous postwar urban environment is taking place, the basis for a “new urban geography of polarization, social segregation and inequality”.13 The period after the Olympic games, can be split in two phases. The first is characterized by a post-Olympic euphoria, during which the urban sprawl and consequent independence of suburban areas was intensified while commercial and production activities in the centre was weakened.14 This new infrastructural diffused city15, would blur the boundaries between Athens and the larger Attica Region. The second phase, or “depression era”, is where all the pathogenies of the previous years started to surface. With the first signs of the forthcoming economic recession, all former expectations regarding investments in devalued central areas started to

Renovation as a project

fig 3.1 Sketch depicting the unregulated construction in Athens, K. Mitropoulos. source: Helen Fessa-Emmanouil, Essays on Neohellenic Architecture (Athens: Privately published, 2001).

3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

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fade away, hence, they contributed to the apparent vacancy of the building stock.16 Furthermore, the milestone of this phase, the riots of December 2008, established a new argument for the centre problematics, linking its malfunctioning market to the political manifestations taking place.17 It is now evident that the problems of the center are not some local symptoms, as suggested by the dominant discourse. The vacant building stock of Athens is not an outcome of the crisis, but an intensification of a long existing problem. If one is to address this problem, this historical framework is significant since it points out the deeper reasons behind this condition. The role of the postwar office building, in this decentralization process is crucial.

3.2 Decentralisation of public services and the role of the Post-war Office Building.

Postwar office buildings are linked with the decentralisation phenomenon, due to fig 3.3-6

its often use by the state or the broader public sector. Specifically, vacancy is also linked to the relocation of public services and administrative facilities of the state,

Peripheral shopping malls(super-markets)

to peripheral areas. This unplanned relocation resulted to the loss of a large number

Expansion of commercial-administrative centre

of employees, working, consuming and perhaps also living in the center. Examples

Central area socially degraded

of this includes ministries, judiciary and financial institutions, and other services.18 The case of the Ministry of Education is illustrative. Specifically, it was relocated to a peripheral area, along one of the main highways in former facilities of the Olympic venues. Its afterlife is also exemplary. The building was left abandoned for ten years until it was renovated to a 5-star hotel.19 This centrifugal tendency was also followed by cultural institutions such as the Greek National Opera, and the National Library, and was also pointing towards the few educational institutions left in the city centre.20 But why this urge to erase all these facilities of the public domain and their

fig 3.2 Urban Development Trends in the Centre

vital activities from the center?

source: Georgios Sarigiannis, “Urban Development Trends in the Attica Basin,” Technika Chronika, no. 4 (1973): 339–62.

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16 Several properties that were bought, could not complete the ongoing gentrification processes, since this presupposes a middle-class willing to buy. During the crisis, due to the consequent austerity measures this middle class was slowly erased. An illustrative example of this failed gentrification is the Metaksourgeio neighborhood.

See: “Rethink Gentrification: Ambitious Brokers, Fallen Middleclass Men and Modern Plebeians in the Center of Athens,” Kompreser, no.

4 (2012).

17 The December 2008 events (6-12-2008), were large protests and demonstrations, which escalated to widespread riots. This was the result of the killing of a 15-year-old student by a police officer in central Athens.

18 ‘Efeteio’ (Athens Court of Appeal), ‘Irinodikio’ (Small Claims Court), Athens Stock Exchange.

19 The building (Mitropoleos 15) designed by P. Karantinos in 1959, was an important example of post-war architecture of public buildings in Athens. In 2016 it was transformed to Electra Metropolis Hotel. As it will be explained on chapter 4, this is a typical renovation example of a postwar office building.

20 Maria Mantouvalou and Ioannis Polyzos, “Prepei na metakomisei kai to Politechneio apo to kentro tis Athinas? (Must the Politechnic school also be relocated from the centre of Athens?),” TEE (Techical chamber of Greece), no. 25 (2009).

105

106

fig 3.3 Ministry of Education, fig 3.4 Social Insurance Institute (IKA)

fig 3.5 Public Power Corporation, fig 3.6 Ministry of Finance

source: Zoe Hatziyannaki, Secrets & Crises, 2012-2014.

source: Zoe Hatziyannaki, Secrets & Crises, 2012-2014.

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Real Estate of Social Pension Institutions To be speculated Leased or personal use as offices (whole building) Leased as hotels Leased as storage spaces Partial Ownership

fig 3.7 Mapping of Real Estate of Social Pension Institutions

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!""

fig 3.8 Mapping of Real Estate of Social Pension Institutions

source: “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and

source: “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and

Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012).

Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012).

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Starting as a decongestion measure in the 80’s, this policy was then linked to issues

As explained the decentralization policies established a new relationship between

of capacity and unsuitability, and in more recent years to financial restructuring

periphery and centre, and created a major shift in the urban geography of Athens,

measures that would diminish the operational costs. Still, what is really at stake

leaving a gap that is linked with several of its current problems. Focusing on the

is the avoidance of manifestations of questioning (peaceful or not), that interfere

international image of the city during the Olympic-period completely neglected

to the smooth operation of governing powers. Again, if one takes the example of

the small and everyday problems of the centre of the city, and its inhabitants,

the Ministry of Education, the political reasons of its relocation are evident, since

establishing as Kostis. Hadjimichalis notes, a major planning deficit for the public

a pole of dispute towards the governing policies on education, was substituted with

interest.32 Moreover, the stripping of the administrative and public services from

a pole of local and foreign tourists.22 Thus, the importance of the network of state

its inner core, has generated irreplaceable gaps both in terms of symbolism and

and other public services in the core of the city, lies in the fact that through their

collective references. From this perspective, any discussion concerning the lack

proximity and visibility, render the centre as an accessible socio-political locus, a

of inhabitants, or propositions of rehabilitating the vacant building stock solely

place for social intercourse and political dispute, which also encourages a ‘centrality’

through dwelling is superficial.33 In other words, one cannot talk about housing,

based on the multiplicity of subjects.23

if there is no infrastructure that can support this use, such as public spaces, social

21

21 See Tzina Mosxoliou, “Metakomizoun ta Ypourgia apo to Kentro tis Athinas (Ministries are Moved-out of the Centre of Athens),” Ta Nea, January 2, 2020. and V Xaralampidou et al., “Pou Metakomizoun ta Ypourgeia? (Where are the Ministries relocated?),” To Vima, November 25, 2008. The newspaper articles, published more than 10 years apart, still discuss the same thing.

22 For the multi-exemplary nature of the building see: “Is the architecture of the ‘return to the center’ superconservative? A comment on the occasion of the former building of the Ministry of Education in Mitropoleos street,” AKEA (Left Movement of Working Architects), October 6, 2014, https://akea2011.com/2014/10/06/ktirioipourgioupedias/.

23 For a further analysis of the socio-political aspects of the centre of the city see: Maria Mantouvalou, “Kentro Polis, Koinwniki Anisotita Kai Politismiki Eterotita. Prokliseis Gia Tin Poleodomiki Skepsi (City Center, Social Inequality and Cultural Heterogeneity. Challenges for Urban Thought),” Mandragoras, no. 12–13 (1996): 54–55. and Maria Mantouvalou, “Krisi Tou Kentrou Polis (Crisis of the Center of Athens)” (Center and Centralities, Paris - Athens: Comparisons, Athens, 2010).

24 “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012), p.

427-433 and Urban Environment Lab-NTUA, “Recovering the Real Estate of the Historic Center of Athens - Exploiting in Terms of Social Return” (Ministry of Labor, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity, 2017).

25 Several efforts for their speculation have been put forward, but due to their bad condition and the individual aims of each institution, this was not so fruitful.

26 In the frame of several reform measures ordered from abroad and implemented by the government, several independent Social Insurance Institutions along with their real estate, were restructured under a unified body, meaning that the totality of this property was now able to be managed under one scheme.

27 Urban Environment Lab-NTUA, “Recovering the Real Estate of the Historic Center of Athens - Exploiting in Terms of Social Return” (Ministry of Labor, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity, 2017).

28 This is supported by going through all the proclamation lists published during the Syriza government with the program that started in 2017, but also by going through the online database of the real estate of the broader public sector (ESTIA), used for the speculation programs of former governments. http://www.idika.org.gr/estia/. The site is not updated since 2013. Several postwar office buildings in the speculation category, are now already sold or rented out to private investors.

29 “Metallassomenoi Charaktires Kai Politikes Sta Kentra Polis Athinas Kai Peiraia (Changing Characters and Policies in the City Centers of Athens and Piraeus)” (Athens: YPEKA-NTUA, 2012).

30 It is not a coincidence that these areas have one of the highest percentages of vacant buildings, and moreover that now they 31 are the ones with the highest concentration in hotel renovations.

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provisions such as schools, but also activities of the productive sector. What is at The management policies for the real estate of the Social Security Institutions has an

stake is an established infrastructural deficit which not only poses obstacles in the

important role in this situation. According to several research programmes, this real

life of existing inhabitants but also makes any plan for future re-habitation extremely

estate includes more than 200 properties only in the center (Municipality of Athens),

difficult.

70% of which are independent buildings. Built mostly in the postwar period they 24

were intended for personal use (administration, office, meeting space) but also for investment purposes. Hence, they were affected by decentralization tendencies of both the public and the private sector. Still, in the context of the crisis, due to their

3.3 Infrastructural Gap and the Emergence of the Commons.

exceptional ownership status, they were placed in the epicenter of the discussions

In the years of the financial and humanitarian crisis period, where all the former

regarding the vacant building stock. Specifically, due to the financial difficulties

fig 3.7

problems were magnified, it became evident that this ‘infrastructural gap’ exists

of these institutions there is a pressure towards the exploitation of the real estate

both in hard and soft infrastructure (public health, welfare, education, childcare,

that remains unused, as a source of income for the repayment of public debt.25 In

emergency services, etc).34 This is an issue concerning most of the countries of the

2017 there was an approach by the Ministry of Labor, Social Insurance and Social

European South and it refers to the inability of both the state and the private sector

Solidarity concerning their exploitation, in terms of social reimbursement.26 At least

along with their partnerships, to provide social amenities at a decent level.35 From

120 properties were available for speculation. 27 Although such programs never refer

state infrastructure provision (welfare state), to the private sector or public-private

to them according to building types, it is evident that a big percentage consists of

partnership made popular from the 1990s onwards, it seems that the outbreak of the

postwar office buildings. Their dominance on this part of the building stock is

euro-crisis has set a new paradigm of infrastructural governance.

28

justified firstly because it could express the prestige nature of the institutions, and

32 Costis Hadjimichalis, “Athens’ international role, the lack of planning for the public interest in the city center,” in To Kentro tis Athinas os Politiko Diakiveuma (Athens city centre as a political stake), ed. T Maloutas et al. (Athens: ΕΚΚΕ, 2013).

secondly because, as mentioned before, a large part of them was used for investment

Although Greece is seen as the example par excellence of the euro-crisis, at the same

and commercial purposes, activities best supported by this type during the postwar

time it can be seen as an exemplary locus of resistance. Specifically, the magnification

33 Here it needs to be clarified that this claim is not referring to the urgent housing needs of vulnerable groups, which needs to be tackled directly.

period. This argument is also supported by the mapping realized by the NTUA

of several self-organized initiatives, or cooperative schemes during the crisis period,

34 Dimitris Dalakoglou, “Infrastructural Gap: Commons, State and Anthropology,” City 20, no. 6 (2016): 822–831.

research program29, where the biggest spatial concentrations of the properties in the

fig 3.8

made clear that there was an attempt to overcome this gap in social infrastructure by

center, are found in areas that are typical for office and administrative activities, such

the population itself. The grassroots social solidarity movement that emerged against

as around Omonoia and Vathi square.30

austerity measures, had a crucial role in linking several marginal local community collectives and making evident a culture of collective ethos.36 More than 400 such

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35 For instance, this inability is expressed especially in countries like Greece and Portugal that were severely hit from the crisis by the establishment of ministries of Social Solidarity in order to partially support grassroot activities, a practice that under different circumstances would be marginal. Ibid p.823 36 There are two seminal events that are linked to emergence of the grassroot movement. The uprising of December 2008 and the occupation of the Syntagma square in 2011.

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structures were formed in the period 2012-2014, and were active in several sectors

with the collective practices that emerged during the crisis? What I think is at stake

such as health, food, education, public spaces, house evictions, social economy,

here is the need for a platform that can allow for the construction of an identity,

immigrant solidarity and so on. A brief overview of some examples can illustrate

through the condensation of its constituent marginal and dispersed parts, that would

the situation. In terms of open public spaces there were several local community

allow for a more ‘aggressive’ introduction of alternative paradigms. Still, one needs

assemblies that claimed unused spaces, transforming them to parks, playgrounds

to be aware of the possibility of institutionalisation, which can establish a specific

or urban gardens, open to but also taken care by the residents. Such examples are

and predetermined behaviour.42 An answer to this might be found in the way such

the Navarinou park in Exarcheia, and the metropolitian park in Elliniko. In relation

practices emerged during the crisis. As Stavros Stavrides notes, due to their porosity

to health, there were many self-organized clinics coupled by networks of doctors

and openness they are characterised by a ‘threshold spatiality’, contrary to the strict

and nursing staff that provided their services and also managed a surplus of stored

boundary condition of enclaves, and can be more instrumental in interfering with

medicines. This came as response to the aggressive budget cuts in the Greek state’s

established models.43

37

public health system that affected both care givers and patients, but also vulnerable groups that were excluded. A very important example is the immigrant solidarity networks. Although this is not a direct outcome of the period at stake, still, it is now much more crucial due to the racist and fascist rhetoric that is on the rise. Contrary to this, an inclusive environment with health care, legal support and accommodation is maintained, that incorporates several vulnerable groups. The list is quite big and includes several collaborative projects that extend to all aspects of life.38 Interestingly enough, a sort of institutionalisation of this alternative paradigm of infrastructure provision, was enhanced by several legislative frameworks that supported the creation of co-operative schemes. Social and Solidarity Economy (Κ.ΑΛ.Ο) was established, in order to partially address the impoverishment of the country, and although there are several arguments about the weaknesses of the integration protocols, there is a steady increase of active Social Cooperatives.39 The unexpected interest on these schemes, has triggered a linking with the vacant building stock of the city. Specifically, through law 4430/2016, several bodies of the broader public sector (state, local government, municipalities), can grant the use of their real estate to co-op schemes in order to enhance activities of social benefit.40 37 Solidarity for All, “Building Hope against Fear and Devastation” (Athens: Solidarity for All, 2015) 38 Cultural centres, food and ‘without middlemen’ networks, housing, debt, legal support, networks of alternative economy.

39 According to the annual reports from 2 in 2012, they escalated to 374 in 2016. The statistics are based only on the co-ops that provided their annual report. According to the General Register the total number of co-op schemes is more than 1000, half of which are situated in Attica region. See: Special Secretariat of Social and Solidarity Economy, “Annual Report 2018” (Ministry of Labor, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity, 2018), and “Report of Social and Solidarity Economy in Greece” (British Council, Ministry of Labor, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity, 2018).

40 Law 4430/2016 paragraph 3 article 5. With Law 4555/2018 (paragraph 2 and 3 article 196) the granting was limited to 5 years after which a fee should be negotiated.

41 Either through by-passing or through establishing different models of collaboration with the state or the private sector.

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All these practices of self-organization or co-operation, based on their own particular formats of management, have created a different modus operandi regarding the infrastructural gap41. More importantly, their emergence not necessarily for ideological reasons, has led to a broader acceptance of the term commons and its related practices. Still, what seems to be a recurring problem in the discussion about the emergence of the commons is the degree of marginalisation. How is it possible 42 For a further elaboration on the “institutions of commoning” see: Stavros Stavrides, “Emerging Common Spaces as a Challenge to the City of Crisis,” City 18, no. 4–5 (2014): 546–50.

to still operate within a certain autonomy but on the same time be exposed in the surrounding environment in order to expand a different paradigm, as was the case

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43 Ibid

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Proposition: Infrastructure Platforms

Renovation as a project

3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

Postwar Office Buildings as Infrastructure Platforms The proposition has as an entry point the programme initiated in 2017 by the Ministry of Labour, concerning the exploitation of the vacant real estate of the Social Security Institutions, in terms of social reimbursement. Still, this proposal focuses only on the reuse of Post-war office buildings, suggesting the accommodation of activities related to the infrastructural gap of the city. The main focus is the creation of different organization models according to which the building is managed, but on the same time a condensation which enables the exposure of an identity into the city. Based on its typological reasoning in chapter 2, the use-value of the tripartite structure is instrumentalised in order to encapsulate the different management models. Hence, different occupations take place depending on the part of the building. This could potentially enable the formation of a ‘difficult whole’, which based on its constituent parts’ relative autonomy, can be porous and open to different forms of collaboration, thus resisting to a certain extent the problem of ‘institutionalisation’. This ‘infrastructure platform’ might be perceived as an updated version of a ‘social condenser’, which is based not on a homogenous content but on multiplicity.

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3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

Base: co-operative schemes The base of the building is intended for the co-operative economy. Based on law 4430/2016 (Social and Solidarity Economy), the ground floor space is provided to co-op schemes for free or by the establishment of a long-term low-renting plan. The commercial use of the arcade is maintained, taking advantage of its immediate relation with the city. Furthermore, the co-operative schemes could be organised according to themes, in order to enhance their identity, exactly in the same way in which arcades operated in the context of Athens in the past. For instance, fish markets, craftsmens’ repairing shops, which can also enable the formation of local syndicates or guilds. Still, the purpose of this is not solely the activation of the ground level of the city that was severely hit by the financial crisis, but its activation through a different model of both management and organization.

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Main body: Municipality, Self-organized groups, Community collectives The main body of the building is intended for several users such as the Municipality or self-organized solidarity groups or community collectives that operate in the scale of the neighbourhood. According to the user this part of the building can host several activities. In the case of the Municipality, it can host festivals or cultural events such as temporal exhibitions. An illustrative example was the accommodation of events in vacant buildings for the Documenta14 exhibition. In the case of solidarity groups, it can host the majority of their activities, such as collecting, storage and exchanging material, spaces for open assemblies, spaces for tutorials, food preparation units and so on. Most importantly though, it can enable a locus where different groups which were dispersed come together and support its other. In the case of the Community collectives, the spaces can be used for childcare or an elderly people club. All of the above, could operate together or apart. Lastly, the spaces of the main body could compensate for the non-existing square meters of open public spaces in the city. Specifically, indoor parks or sport facilities could creatively transform this neglected but valuable space. Depending on the groups that will use it, the organization of space can be based on several layouts.

For example, collective working spaces or storage spaces can be dispersed in small units on one floor level, the establishment of a Solidarity Clinic could occupy one or more floors, other temporal events of bigger scale could occupy the entirety of the main body and so on. This can happen either through complete internal renovation, or by adjusting to existing divisions of the former office space use.

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Crest: Social housing, Emergency shelters, Student housing The upper part of the building, can address the dwelling aspect of the infrastructural gap of the city. As analysed in chapter 2, this part was often used for apartments and presented relevant qualities such as the terraces created by the recessed floors. From this perspective, it is logical for the crest to be intended for social housing, emergency shelters, or student housing, all of which are currently almost absent from the city. This section is intended to be managed by the state or other carriers under its custody. The model is based on funding from European programmes on urban renewal (Jessica, Espa). In relation to social housing, Greece was historically associated with minimal contribution.

What currently exists on this issue is an accumulation of a small number of typical flats, which are dispersed across the city in different polikatoikia units. Establishing a new more centralized model, can allow for more effective use of the funds, due to fewer maintenance and managing expenses, renovation of space according to specific social and spatial needs, and also the bringing together of people in similar conditions.

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3. Decentralization and the Infrastructural Gap

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4. Renovation

In this chapter what will be discussed is mainly the challenges that all

propositions regarding the vacant building stock, as the one proposed in the previous chapter, are confronted with. It will be argued that if willingness and bureaucratic obstacles are surpassed, the major issue of inoperativity is the regulations regarding the energy performance of buildings. The aim is to identify how this problem affects renovation interventions, in general but also specifically on the post-war office building and how this in turn affects the city. Hence, the argument is that one should actually focus on this aspect, in order for renovation to enable different scenarios of “filling the void� to be realized.

4. Renovation

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4.1 The Emergence of Renovation Construction is one of the former pillars of Greek economy but at the same time one that was severely hit by the financial crisis.17 A massive decline of 83% in the number

Πηγές εικόνων !

of building permits can illustrate the bankrupt state of architecture. Another way

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to understand these implications is by tracing not what has been paused but what has been actually produced during this period. A brief overview of the main areas of operation of the profession in this period is a good representation of what is going

Εικόνες!

on. Apart from settling and legalization of unauthorized parts of buildings, the main

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activities concern modifications, renewals, extensions, maintenance, dealing with the existing building stock.19 Enter renovation. Although an outcome of necessity and not of critical evaluation,20 the adaptation of the profession to the market -that is, existing spaces and extremely limited budget- quickly established renovation as a necessary substitute of the construction industry. At the same time, this paradigm shift, opened up possibilities for new creative endeavors, which in turn would slowly reveal the potentiality of updating or transforming existing typologies of the badly maintained existing building stock.

The resurrection of the construction sector through renovation had multiple parallel effects, all of which are definitely connected with the issue of the center of Athens. One of them, is the strong connection between renovation and the emergence of sharing economy, especially through the Air BnB platform. Athens, being the capital of a very touristic country, gave the opportunity to a large amount of people to take advantage of their properties, primary residencies or properties that were left vacant for several years. This was very crucial for several households, as an additional source of income, during the recession period, and also gave the 1 According to several studies this was one of the largest recessions for a professional sector worldwide, and it had a tremendous impact on employment rates. See: Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (ΙΟΒΕ), “The Importance of Development, the Obstacles and the Future of the Construction Sector” (ΣΕΠΑΚ, March 2015). and “European Construction Sector Observatory. Country Profile Greece” (March 2018: European Commission, n.d.), http:// sate.gr/nea/CFS_Gr_26042018.pdf.

2 Data referring to private construction activities for the period 2007 - 2016. National Statistical Authority of Greece (EL. STAT), “Construction Activity Survey: December 2016,” 2017, https:// www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/68bace8d-dd7a-4840-8f3d81566f083fbd.

opportunity to small owners to sustain their highly taxed properties. Moreover, this positively affected the microeconomy of several central neighborhoods. Thus, it can be said that renovation activities are not only operating as a substitute of new

entire house/apartment

constructions due to the economical restrictions but have also become a force that

"

actually drives and sustains a part of the economy. Although in the beginning, this

"

new condition seemed harmless, in the end it triggered a shift on the real estate

independent room

Χάρτης 12"Καταχωρημένα ακίνητα στην πλατφόρμα ,)-.'.

common room

"

"(Δ. Αθηναίων, 2017)."

market, one with severe consequences for the city and its residents.

3 A measure implemented in order to provide a source of income for the state but also to keep alive small companies of the sector.

4 For examples of renovation before the crisis see: Elias Constantopoulos, “Re-Use: A New Urban Consciousness,” in Made in Athens (Athens: Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, 2012).

5 Inside Airbnb provides data that help understand the way AirBnb is used and its impact on cities. Although Airbnb does not share any public data, this site generates useful data by compiling public information such as availability, reviews, listings.

According to Inside Airbnb21, for 2020 in the municipality of Athens, 87.8% of listings were entire home/apartments, 11.6% were private rooms and 0.6% of

fig 4.1

fig 4.1 Registered Properties on the Airbnb platform (Municipality of Athens, 2017). Data from Inside Airbnb

listings were shared rooms. Furthermore, 50,8% of hosts have more than two listings

source: Eva Papatzani, Dimitris Pettas, and Dimitris Balampanidis, “Spatial, Social and Economic Effects of Airbnb Short Term

which means that short-term rental can range from a survival approach to a serious

Rentals in Athens. Preliminary Results of an Ongoing Research” (Attiki Se Krisi, Athens, 2017).

!"

" 128

Renovation as a project

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129

investment strategy. Through Airbnb, the capitalization potentials of renovation,

4.2 The Institutionalization of Renovation: Energy Performance Regulations

were made evident, and as in every case of deregulation and destabilization, allowed

and its Discontents.

big capital to take advantage of this condition. Easy acquisition of devalued

The period of the economic crisis is also marked with two major points that are

properties from people in debt, was followed by a mass-renovation of the existing

linked with renovation as a project. Firstly, the introduction of legislations for the

building stock, which vacant or not, was now intended for a professional use of the

energy efficiency of buildings, and secondly the consequences of the crisis in the

platform. Furthermore, in recent years this phenomenon took bigger dimensions

form of energy poverty. What is at stake here is the way state policies, outlined

due to the interest of foreign investors for golden visas, that led to the renovation

by KENAK law (Regulation on the Energy Performance of Buildings)24, and subsidy

of entire buildings.22 The combination of all these, has rejuvenated the interest for

programs such as “Exoikonomisi Katoikon” (Saving Energy at Home)25, have critically

the centre, but on the same time has strongly mutated its character. Filled with ‘ghost

determined the instrumentality of renovation on the building stock of Athens and

hotels’, the central neighborhoods, have become a hostile environment for students,

its impact on the issue of energy poverty. Specifically, it will be argued that the

lower income households, and also a large amount of people from vulnerable groups.

implementation of KENAK, not only limits any creative potential of renovation

As several studies have pointed out23, this has fueled gentrification and displacement,

but more importantly it proposes a very specific renovation methodology, that

since a large number of flats are now out of the market, which renders the existing

completely ignores social factors in favor of a supposed environmentally friendly

ones both harder to find and also much more expensive for permanent residents.

approach. Thus, an investigation on the implementation of energy performance

Permanent inhabitants are considered less profitable, and are often evicted, in order

regulations in the context of Greece is crucial.

to renovate and place the property in the short-term accommodation economy. So, there is a paradoxical condition generated, in which renovation instead of dealing

KENAK law is actually an energy rating system. Its basic critique is that the ideal

with the city’s vacant building stock, is at times the reason of producing even more

rating concerns the one to one transfer of hermetic shells conditioned by more

vacant spaces.

efficient machines that refer to northern climates instead of the adaptation of bioclimatic design principles in the Mediterranean climate. To achieve its suggested

From a spare room or a secondary flat, to a group of flats, to a series of buildings

objectives, its methodology is actually pushing towards the use of specific materials

in the inner centre, renovation is directly related to the city and cannot be separated

and mechanical equipment.26 Apart from their doubtful effectiveness from an

from its social and political implications. Interestingly enough, the way in which

environmental point of view, this new turn to a more institutionalized renovation

renovation is instrumentalised from the scale of the room to the building, and with

approach, is actually supporting big companies specialized in these products, severely

its repetition to the scale of the city, in a way resembles the way in which the postwar

limits the distribution of a project’s budget and standardizes the renovation strategies.

reconstruction project of Athens was realized. The seemingly informal development

In parallel, the energy related subsidy programs are paradoxically going against their

of the city through the antiparochi system, made possible by the provision of a loose

nature, since they are promoting operations that refer to costly renovations, thus

framework by the state, was prioritizing the generation of income and circulation

excluding a large amount of the population flirting with energy poverty.

of capital, contrary to the planning of the city itself. With the same priorities, the

6 According to law 4251/2014 provision of European visa was granted in return to investment in the country. More than 4500 investors have used this law. See: Costis Hadjimichalis, “Who Is Ultimately Responsible for the Displacement of Residents?,” Efimerida Ton Syntakton, September 15, 2019, https://www.efsyn.gr/nisides/210774_ poios-telika-eythynetai-gia-ton-ektopismo-ton-katoikon.

system of contractors, architects and solicitors of the re-construction period, is

Instead of proposing a blind selection of products fulfilling the standards that the

now substituted by a system of renovators: architects, contractors, accountants, and

law suggests, as E. Vafiadou argues27, is it possible to imagine a new regulatory

short-term accommodation management companies, for the re-novation period.

framework of bioclimatic design principles, in relation to the local climate? Instead

Being such a project, its relation to state policies will be further analyzed.

of fixed standards which one reaches only through innovative products, can we imagine thermal comfort as a design problem that can guide any interventions?

The energy efficiency of a building is certainly not only related to the quality of

7 Dimitris Balampanidis, Eva Papatzani, and Dimitris Pettas, “Myths and Realities about Airbnb Short Term Rentals,” Synchrona Themata, no. 142 (2018): 7–9. and Sotiris Sideris, “Mapping The Dominance Of Airbnb On Athens,” Medium, September 5, 2019, https://medium.com/athenslivegr/mapping-the-dominance-of-airbnbin-athens-4cb9e0657e80.

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materials but is directly affected by its exposure to sunlight, making it a variable value. If we consider thermal comfort in the same way, not as a fixed value, then

Renovation as a project

4. Renovation

8 First and second edition of KENAK Law: Φ.Ε.Κ. B407/9.4.2010, ΦΕΚ B2367/12.07.2017.

9 Subsidy program for operations that will update the energy efficiency of buildings. First cycle 2011-2015 10 For instance, by bonusing the replacement of door or window glazing and frames of low energy performance and old heating petrol boilers with new high-performance ones or natural gas systems.

11 Eleni Vafiadou, “Skepseis Gia Enan Prasino GOK (Thoughts on a Greener GOK),” Architektones, no. 7 (2013).

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in the context of the current economic circumstances, another way to approach it could be a variable way of using the building during different periods of the year.

This approach should take in consideration the appropriate education of the users of buildings as well, in order to adjust to periodical changes, an aspect that KENAK is not dealing with, since its implementation was sudden and immediate.

Another aspect of the implementation of KENAK has to do with the outcome of the above-mentioned strategies on the building as a whole. Incentives for a more collective approach in the scale of the building such as double facades or utilization of lightwells, are neglected in the calculation of energy performance, although the larger the scale of the intervention the more effective it is.28 Additionally, the subsidy programs are oriented toward individual approaches, making a collective intervention impossible for bureaucratic reasons. Hence due to the fragmented property regime, the result is multiple renovations that heavily affect the envelope of a building. Different paintings in the limits of each property, several variations of frames, external pipes attached for autonomous heating systems, random positioning of air-conditioning units, all manifest the individualistic approach of renovation that is supported by state policies.

12 Alis Korovesi et al., “Energy Poverty in Greece. Proposals of Social Innovation for Adressing the Phenomenon” (Thessaloniki: Heinrich Boll Stiftung, 2017).

fig 4.2 Office Building operating on “life support” through the use of multiple A/C units source: Author

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4.3 Energy Performance Regulations in Postwar Office Buildings

4.4 Archetypical Renovations: Postwar Office Buildings to Hotels and its

In the case of the post-war office buildings, although one would think that renovation

Consequences.

could be an easier task, since in several cases they consist of single unified property,

The consequences of the above are that it has enabled only specific renovation

the pathogenies of the legislation are even more evident. For a better understanding

projects, that can overcome these problems and guarantee a secure investment. The

of this, an analysis of some parts of the energy performance legislation will follow,

most common example is the transformation of former office buildings into four

which will also allow for connections to be made between renovation and the vacant

(or more) star hotels. The situation is similar to the one described previously in the

building stock of Athens. According to Article 12/Par. 1(law. 4122/2013) in order

smaller scale, that is, speculation of vacant or neglected space by foreign investors

to sell, rent, or perform a large-scale renovation of a property, an energy performance

through renovation for the tourism economy. There are several reasons that have

certificate has to be issued first. This makes clear that whatever the operation, the

made this transformation an archetypical renovation example. Specifically, in

energy update of a building is non-negotiable. Still, what is worth discussing here is

comparison to the rest of the existing building stock, exceptional opportunities are

the definition of “Large-scale renovation”. This term is crucial because it determines

presented in terms of scale, single unified property, and severe devaluation due to

when an existing building should be under the influence of the energy regulations,

its previously mentioned pathogenies. On top of all this, due to the fact that several

and when smaller interventions can be exempted.

of these buildings belong to the neglected real estate of the broader public sector,

29

the pressure for their exploitation under the memorandum framework became one of the main objects of negotiation since the vacant (but not only) real estate was considered an important source of income for the repayment of public debt.

Article 2: Definitions Par. 2. (law. 4122/2013) “Radical renovation of a building or building unit (Large-scale renovation)”: the renovation in which:

An interesting case study that exemplifies this situation is the NAT office megaron.

a) The total cost of renovation that concerns the shell of the building or building unit, or their technical

Built in 1968, by the architecture collaborative OPAM32, it is situated in downtown

systems exceeds twenty-five percent (25%) of the current value of the building or building unit,

Athens (Akadimias & Omirou Street), and used to be part of the real estate of the

based on the minimum construction cost, excluding the value of the plot on which the building was

Mariners’ Insurance Fund. After years of neglection a competition was organized

constructed b) renovation of more than twenty-five percent (25%) of the surface of the building envelope or

fig 4.3-4

for its exploitation, and from 2019 the building is operating as Academia of Athens, Autograph Collection, a 5-star hotel by Marriot Group.33 The renovation of the building was designed by MT Architects, and manifests all the pathogenies of the energy

building unit takes place.

regulations mentioned before. In the place of a transparent volume made out of consecutive openable glass frames, now stands a hermetic box, enclosing an artificial Post-war office buildings seem to be inevitable to be excluded. On the one hand we

interior climate regulated by the newly installed mechanical systems.34

are talking about a significantly devaluated part of the existing building stock, and

13 Laws analysed: KENAK law (ΦΕΚ B2367/12.07.2017), and law 4122/2013 (ΦΕΚ Α42/19.02.2013) “Energy Performance Of Buildings-Harmonization With Directive 2010/31/EU”.

14 The first obligatory regulation for thermal insulation was established in 1979. The majority of these buildings were constructed between the 50’s and 70’s.

15 Nikos Triantafyllopoulos, “The Problem of Empty and Abandoned Buildings in the Center of Athens,” Dianeosis, February 28, 2018, https://www.dianeosis.org/2018/02/abandoned-buildings-athens/.

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on the other hand this specific typology, in most of the cases consists of obsolete

In relation to the scale of the city, the repetition of this renovation model, for

heating systems, single glaze openings, and almost no insulation.30 It is a very energy

neglected and devaluated office buildings, of both the private and public sector has

consuming typology, and due to the above factors its renovation is immediately

severe implications on the urban space of the city centre. The central neighbourhoods

rendered a very costly operation.31 Moreover, due to the scale of the building and

around the limits of the historical centre, where most of these buildings are located,

the need for more holistic approaches, even the interventions that are not necessarily

are evolving into a new goldmine for foreign real estate investment companies,

costly, place it under the “Large-scale renovation” category. Due the above reasons

tourism and also construction industry groups.35 The result of this procedure of

it is clear that the energy-oriented aspect of the problem of vacant space, especially

capitalising on the vacant building stock of Athens, is a mass touristification of the

when it comes to this typology, is one of the most crucial since these regulations

city, which ignores existing inhabitants and the real problems of the centre. Based

render their majority useless.

on citations on the press, 36 but focusing only on this typology, the identification

Renovation as a project

4. Renovation

16 OPAM (Urbanism and Architectural Studies Team): E. Vourekas, K. Dekavallas, A. Georgiadis, V. Grigoriadis 17 After an 7.000.000 euros investment by a Lebanese interest group, it now has 60 rooms and suites, an underground pool, a lounge bar, a restaurant and a roof garden.

18 In the second announcement of the development competition (2014) it is stated that, based on a research, the minimum basic repairing costs of the renovation, including updates according to recent regulations, is estimated to 750.000 euros.

19 The main reasons behind this intense interest on urban tourism in Athens are geopolitical. War, uprisings, military coups, and terrorist attacks have damaged other major competing Mediterranean destinations and benefited safer places such as Greece. See: Kostas Vourekas, “Tourismos, Idou to ‘Neo’ Montelo Anaptuksis (Tourism, Here Is the ‘New’ Development Model),” ΠΡΙΝ, July 23, 2018, http:// prin.gr/?p=21654.

20 Paradoxically, this phenomenon is never analysed in the academia through the perspective of this building type, and for this reason most of the sources consulted are related with articles of the general press, or magazines related to the investment and real estate field. See: Antiopi Sxoina, “‘Explosion’ of Investments up to 10 billion euros in Hotels,” Business Daily, December 2, 2019, https:// www.businessdaily.gr/epiheiriseis/5984_ekrixi-ependyseon-eos-10dis-eyro-se-xenodoheia; Giorgos Lialios, “Athens as a Vast Hotel,” Kathimerini, May 27, 2019, https://www.kathimerini.gr/1025773/ article/epikairothta/ellada/ena-aperanto-3enodoxeio-h-a8hna; Nikos Rousanoglou, “New ‘Arrivals’ in the Hotels Map of Athens,” Kathimerini, September 25, 2018, https://www.kathimerini.gr/986510/gallery/ epikairothta/ellada/nees-afi3eis-ston-3enodoxeiako-xarth-ths-a8hnas; Nikos Rousanoglou, “The New Eldorado of Hoteliers,” Kathimerini, January 28, 2019, https://www.kathimerini.gr/1006966/article/ oikonomia/epixeirhseis/to-neo-elntoranto-twn-3enodoxwn; Giannis Pantazopoulos, “Invasion of Investors in Omonoia. Dozens of New Projects,” LiFO, September 19, 2018, https://www.lifo.gr/articles/athens_articles/208237/epidromi-ependyton-stin-omonoia-dekades-neaprotzekt; Kostas Delezos, “Hotel ‘explosion’ in Athens with Luxury Units,” Ta Nea, April 13, 2018, https://www.tanea.gr/2018/04/13/economy/ksenodoxeiaki-ekriksi-stin-athina-me-polyteleis-monades/.

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fig 4.3 N.A.T Office Megaron, 1968, OPAM Collaborative

fig 4.4 Academia of Athens Hotel, Marriott Autograph Collection, 2019, MT architects

source: Neohellenic Architecture Archives.

source: Booking.com

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138

Ag. Kostantinou & Koumoundourou K. Georgiadis & A.Vrettos 1968

Sokratous & Likourgou Str. I. Rizos 1961

Chalkokondili & Aristotelous S. Staikos 1975

Stadiou & Pesmatzoglou Str. S. Staikos 1962

Akadimias & Omirou Str. E. Vourekas (O.P.A.M) 1968

Achilleos & Karaiskaki square V. Grigoriadis 1963

Stadiou & Omonoia square C. Lempesis, K. Zahopoulos 1967

Pireos & Zinonos Str. 1970

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139

and further analysis, of the condition of office buildings transformed or to-be fig 4.5

transformed into hotels, led to a map which depicts certain concentrations of these buildings in specific areas. The most important of these areas is Omonoia square, an area of supralocal character whose recent amelioration, represents the general approach of urban renewal for the centre of Athens followed in the last years, that is, beautification of public space. Specifically, through fast track procedures and with no respect to official protocols, the newly elected municipal authorities opened the way for a project that is decided and funded by the private sector, which led to the transformation of a public space to a monumental fountain.37 Thus, we can observe that the hotelification of the city, through the renovation of office buildings is also triggering a parallel privatization of public space, with projects acting as the necessary garnish that provides just the right background for the vision of the investors. The real problem here is that this background is playing a major role for what was previously introduced in chapter 3 as the infrastructural gap, and through this approach the chances of it supporting a different ‘reprogramming’ of the city are severely diminished. In other words, the deepening of the lack of amenities and social infrastructure that could support dwelling in the centre, such as public space, schools, local shops, etc is not only neglecting current permanent residents, but it is also multiplying problems for the future rehabilitation of the centre, when the unsustainable bubble of the tourist economy bursts.

4.5 Renovation as a Project: From the Building to the City As we have seen the specific renovation model that has been established as a consequence of the energy performance regulations, have triggered a set of broader problems, both in the architecture and the urban scale, which in turn pose a set of further questions.

In the architecture scale, apart from the problematic approach of energy performance in itself, a discussion can be set regarding the destruction of modern monuments.

0

250m

0

250m

The post-war office buildings turned into hotels, have a twofold importance for the city of Athens. On the one hand, as symbols of civic life. As explained in chapter 3, hosting former services of the public sector, where people of the whole city

Athens Triangle State Owned buildings (single property) Transformation to hotel (realised) Transformation to hotel (in progress)

performed ‘citizenship rituals’, they are directly linked with the collective memory of the city. Thus, their complete transformation is also connected to the dissolution of urban artefacts, monuments that give a specific form to the city. On the other hand, although they are rendered obsolete through KENAK law, being the dominant

fig 4.5 Map of realised and potential renovation of Postwar office buildings to hotels

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Renovation as a project

4. Renovation

21 Giorgos Papagkikas, “A Fountain (instead) for Omonoia Square,” AKEA (Left Movement of Working Architects), February 20, 2020, https://akea2011.com/2020/02/20/anti-omonoia/.

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type of the city centre, the post-war office buildings can be linked with issues of preserving the modern movement, and specifically, as shown in chapter 2, the way it was implemented in the Greek context. These observations set up questions regarding the role of the architect, when intervening on an existing building of certain architectural values but also under the restrictions of energy legislations, whose implementation is clear that are completely on the opposite direction.

Although in the present thesis this was presented through a very contextual analysis, issues such as denser existing city centres and stricter regulations due to climate change, are more and more relevant in the architectural practice and should also be in the architectural discourse. Thus, these observations set renovation as a very complex endeavour, even in the scale of the building, that could also be defined as a new project of experimental preservation.

In the urban scale, it is clear that through the renovation of this type, the city is experiencing a phenomenon that has already happened in several European capitals, that is, the touristification of its centre. Moreover, the mutation of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character is strongly based on the selling off or long-term lease of the property of the broader public sector, as we have seen with the real estate of the Social Security Institutions.

Although the commercial exploitation is an inevitable procedure at a certain extent, due to the financial circumstances, the question here is, if it is possible for socially beneficial urban policies, such as the one proposed in chapter 3, to be relatively viable in economic terms, through a different approach on energy efficiency?

How can renovation be instrumentalised in a way that enables different models of exploitation of the vacant building stock to be realised, in other words how can it trigger an alternative project for the city?

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Proposition: Alternative Renovation Protocols

In order to respond to the previous questions, this proposition is concerned mainly with the way renovation can address the limitations imposed by the energy efficiency regulations. To do that, after a close reading of the KENAK law, an effort to uncover some parts of the legislation was made, specifically exemption articles. This led to their architectural translation, alternative renovation protocols that in combination with the propositions of previous chapters, allowed me to propose a different renovation strategy that partially bypasses the energy efficiency restrictions. Depending on the part or the scale of the building the renovation can be accomplished in a standard or alternative way. Important in this approach, is that through these protocols not only is a different renovation approach achieved but also a sort of selective preservation that guarantees the maintenance of the basic architectural features of office buildings. The protocols should not be considered merely as design hacks, but as potential design principles that redefine renovation.

This is to be based on a broader passive climatic approach, which tries to establish a different use manual for such buildings. Moreover, through the application of the protocols, the aim is the uncovering of the existing legislative pathogenies, that not only block any alternative project but even enhance existing use, management, and property structures. This could potentially trigger their re-evaluation. The protocols are gathered in the following pages in the form of a booklet, that can operate as a manual of renovation for post-war office buildings.

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General Protocols

Proposition 1: Tripartite Intervention The main parts of the building should be considered as autonomous entities. Thus, renovation should be done independently for each part, with different approaches, allowing also for a phasing of the process according to available resources. This approach could allow some of the parts to avoid the definition of â&#x20AC;&#x153;large scale renovationâ&#x20AC;?.

Proposition 2: Selective Listing The selective listing concerns mainly the maintenance of the original design principles of the facade. In case of exceptional architectural merit, (in most cases to be found in the facade of the main body of the building), an analysis that justifies this should be undertaken in collaboration with the Greek department of Docomomo, in order to guarantee its full maintenance.

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#2 Selective Listing

Brise-Soleil type

Curtain-wall type

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Part Specific Protocols

Renovation of lower part (Arcade/shops) Proposition 3: Union In the ground floor level the demolition of dividing walls transforms former individual small shops into larger unified collective spaces. Through their use as themed commercial spaces, the aim is the re-organization of the fragmented property regime into co-operative schemes, which will support the survival of former small businesses. In case of an internal arcade its architectural character should be maintained until the end of time.

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Part Specific Protocols

Renovation of Main Body Proposition 4: Exceptional Uses Renovation strategies should be based on projects that focus on the exceptional use categories (Article 4/Paragraph 7).

Proposition 5: Combination of Exceptional and Basic Use Categories Design of units (for basic use categories) which are not independent from the main exception use category of the building or building unit. The space of the units should be less than 50m2 per building or building unit.

Proposition 6: Withdrawal In line with the listing of the facades of the main part (Proposition 2), a new recessed facade is proposed, a “green wall” that could generate different climatic conditions on the interior space.

Proposition 7: Not so Well-tempered Environments Renovation strategies should consider different levels of climatic regulation. These can be spaces that can be used without regulating their climatic conditions (open-air) or by their partial regulation, functioning like outdoor but still weather proof spaces.

Proposition 8: Multiply Subdivision of the main part of the building into different exceptional use categories per floor in order to multiply the effects of Proposition 4.

Units can have double height if restriction of 50m2 is respected, and if access to units is possible from one of the 2 floors. In this case the same exceptional use category can be placed for two consequent floors.

Proposition 9: Subtraction Demolition of specific parts of the floor should be done in order to allow for the double height units (Proposition 8), or additional vertical circulation. In case of structural instability a parallel system of reinforcement should be designed.

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#4 Exceptional Uses

Article 4/Paragraph 7 c) buildings used as places of worship

Article 4/Paragraph 7 d) industrial facilities, craft industries, workshops

open air spaces

Article 4/Paragraph 7 e) buildings of temporary use (<2years)

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#5 Combination of Exceptional and Basic Use Categories

Exception use category per floor 50m2 of basic use category per floor

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#5 Combination of Exceptional and Basic Use Categories

Article 4/Paragraph 7 c) buildings used as places of worship

Article 4/Paragraph 7 d) industrial facilities, craft industries, workshops

open air spaces

Article 4/Paragraph 7 e) buildings of temporary use (<2years)

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#6 Withdrawal

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Polycarbonate folding panels 170

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Sliding glass doors 172

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Glass blocks 174

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#7 Not so Well-tempered Environments

From Well-tempered to not so Well-tempered 176

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#8 Multiply

DiďŹ&#x20AC;erent exception use category per floor 50m2 of basic use category per floor

Double height units of basic use category Same exception use category for 2 floors

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#9 Subtraction

Random subtraction and reinforcing structure.

Subtraction in-between beams

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Part Specific Protocols

Renovation of Upper Part (Crest) Proposition 10: Recessed floors & Rooftop The average facade of recessed floors allows for the easier thermal and energy efficiency update of this part. Thus, in case the renovation is under the “large scale renovation” definition, a conventional refurbishment is undertaken (with certificate) and makes this part more suitable for basic use categories, such as dwellings. The rooftop level is covered with a pergola structure that can allow for its partial use in the summer. Another part should be delimited for renewable energy sources installation.

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Protocol #11: Extension

Protocol #3: Retire

Protocol #6: Withdrawal

Protocol #9: Subtraction

Protocol #9: Subtraction

Protocol #2: Selective Listing

Protocol #10: Union

Existing Building

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Renovation in three parts

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1. Base Co-operative schemes

Creation of unified open space for co-operatives

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0

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5m

Existing condition

Demolition of dividing walls and unification of space through self-made furniture.

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5m

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2. Main Body Municipality, Self-organized groups, Community collectives Reorganization of the building through the Withdrawal protocol. The recessed faรงade introduces a new passive insulating layer and generates a new building inside the building with less energy needs. The space between the 2 facades is used as a terrace, a curved out winter garden that ventilates the building, provides semi exterior collective spaces, and also introduces an additional circulation system. The programme is articulated as a direct outcome of exemption articles of KENAK law. To avoid energy certificates, Basic use categories can only exist if they are less than 50m2 and are not independently accessed from other fully exceptional uses.

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Existing condition

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First floor: Temporary uses adressed to the city.

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First floor: Temporary uses adressed to the city.

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Existing condition

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Second floor: Sports / Classes/ Outdoor activities (no insulation needed)

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Second floor: Sports / Classes/ Outdoor activities (no insulation needed)

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Existing condition

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Third floor: Sports / Classes/ Outdoor activities (no insulation needed)

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Third floor: Sports / Classes/ Outdoor activities (no insulation needed)

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Existing condition

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Floors 4-7: Workshops, Storage or larger spaces of assembly combined with collective living units (<49.9m2)

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Floors 4-7: Workshops, Storage or larger spaces of assembly combined with collective living units (<49.9m2)

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Living Units: Creation of different climatic zones

Working - Storage Units

Collective space (no insulation/climatic regulation) Semi-collective space (no insulation/passive climatic regulation) Private space (insulation/passive & artificial climatic regulation)

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3. Crest Social housing

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Existing condition

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Social Housing apartments based on various levels of sharing

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Recessed floor

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Roof terrace

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Conclusions

The implementation of the proposed renovation protocols on the previous building although situated in a specifically chosen location of the Athenian centre, is not contextual. As it was suggested many times, it concerns an alternative that can potentially be established as an archetypical renovation approach, which can allow for different ways of re-using the vacant building stock of the city. From this point of view, it is not concerned with its success, but with the effectiveness or not of the several protocols applied in different parts of the building. Furthermore, the renovation approach based on the tripartite organizational diagram of the type, can be extended to other typologies of the city. Both arcades and recessed floors, being a direct outcome of legislation, affect all the buildings of the city, hence, partial application is also possible both in terms of phasing but also for a specific part of another typology (most probably that of the polykatoikia). This, responds to a certain extent, to the issue of fragmented propery, which is otherwise surpassed by default in the current thesis, due to the exceptional ownership status of the office buildings of Social Pension Institutions.

If we consider the previous application of the protocols as a pilot project, then apart from the physical aspect of the interventions, a post-speculation of the suggested management schemes is worth it. Specifically, their importance lies in the fact that, if renovation is to be considered a project for the city, then it cannot be based on the former dominant sociopolitical structures. The implementation and combination of such management and ownership structures in the context of Greece has many challenges. Still, the suggested approach can be considered as an experiment of reorganizing existing models, which in combination with renovation can trigger different forms of life.

Reflecting on the broader use-value of the alternative renovation protocols for post-war office buildings, apart from a re-use method, they suggest the need for a legislative confrontation of architecture. In other words, the protocols, as an outcome of the research are not presented as a “better” way of renovation, but point out the basis on which potential “better” ways should be grounded.

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