In Greece, during the last few years, a demand for transparency around food and a need to eliminate the intermediaries, mainly due to poor quality of products in combination to high prices, has resulted in a boom of collective action concerning the production and distribution of food. On the other hand, the proliferation of movements [...]
A park that was supposed to be a parking area celebrated on Sunday, 14 of April its 4th year of existence. A small self-organized park in the heart of Athens, Greece has set a very important precedent in the latest urban history of self-managed open spaces for all Greek Cities. The Navarinou Park is located [...]
Apart from the economic crisis that they have been facing for the past five years, Athenians also have to re-think the city center of Athens. More precisely, they have to re-think one of the most prominent axes that unifies Sintagma (Constitution) and Omonia (Concord) central Squares, which are also attached to the famous neoclassical trilogy [...]
Kifisos is a principal watercourse of the Attica basin which springs from mountains of Parnitha and Penteli, run through downtown Athens and eventually discharges into Saronikos Bay. Just before emptying into the sea, for a stretch of 20klm, river Kifisos has been regrettably covered by transportation infrastructure as means to avoid expensive expropriations. At its [...]
Against all odds, municipalities, all over Greece, are in a race to propose projects for bioclimatic upgrading of public open spaces such as streets, squares, and parks. The “Bioclimatic upgrading for open public spaces” program is funded by the NSRF development program and guided by the Centre for Renewable Energy and Save (CRES). Its main [...]
The nongovernmental organization “Our Park” is behind a successful story of synergy between private and public actors, as well as participatory design, for the creation of an open public space in the heart of Athens, Greece. For over a year, “Our Skate Park” in downtown Athens has set a useful and optimistic precedent in urban [...]
It’s been over 12 years since Athens International Airport moved from the Elliniko area, a significant coastal area of Attica, to its new home in Spata. Since then, there is an ongoing debate between the State, private investors, social movements and institutions, like the National Technical University of Athens with its Urban Environment Laboratory, on propositions [...]
State, citizens and private investors have been vindicating the area of Eleonas in Athens for the last six years. The area of 9,000 square meters extends in the south-west boroughs of Peristeri, Egaleo, St. John Renti, Tavros and Athens and form the area of Eleonas. Eleonas is regarded as another “back yard” of Athens, in [...]
Metaxourgio is a residential area of west-central Athens, in close distance to square Omonia. The vicinity’s current urban characteristics stem from its industrial past, which, today, is composed of a big reserve of empty unused buildings, open spaces, small traditional cafés, craftsmen’s workshops on the ground floors of residential buildings, and half-abandoned buildings. Metaxourgio is [...]
The new regulatory master plan for the metropolitan area of Athens/Attica 2021 is a ten-year plan of interventions and urban policies founded on the basis of three major pillars – Economy, Society and Environment, while complying with the European directives for cities with compactness. On the other hand, during the last three years, under the [...]
