The status of Contemporary Greek Architecture to be debated at SHARE Athens 2018

Is there any better place to talk about architecture than Athens, the core of architectural philosophy? The ancient times had undoubtedly proved their architectural potential, endorsed by a favorable political, cultural, and maybe the most influential criteria, economical context.

The last decades of Greek architecture had been a tumultuous period, from an ecstatic influx of large scale projects generated with the occasion of the Olympic Games, to a diminishing rate of new architectural interventions, constrained by the economic crisis. From this problematic situation has emerged a wide range of small projects, interiors designs or rehabilitations, but the modern times question the need of a new approach.

Athens is one of the biggest economic centers in the southeastern Europe with the Piraeus Port being the largest passenger port in Europe and the second largest in the world.

In this regard, Dr. Arch. Evangelos Lyroudias, Former President of the Association of Greek Architects, states a number of contemporary architectural issues Greek Architecture faces that would be addressed and discussed at the SHARE Forum in Athens.

The problems he selected to be debated are related to the tall building policy which needs to update in order to facilitate some big projects who seem to be necessary, the Athens Acropolis and The Hellinikon Case.

• It is internationally acknowledged that human activity effects the environment. The Greek constitution and subsequent legislation focuses on the conservation of nature, cultural heritage and antiquities. The mild weather conditions -despite the climatic change instabilities- helped and supported the idea that we must protect nature against human activities. That sometimes exceeds “ordinary limits” and socioeconomic needs of the country. On the way out of the “recession long period” some big projects seem to be necessary. Tall buildings are supposed to be part of every large-scale project. Special legislation should be adopted after thorough legislative discussions and various theoretical and other preservation approaches.
• The Parthenon, is considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The discussion against tall buildings in Athens metropolitan area, is mainly established that no “contradictory or antagonistic building” to the Parthenon should be allowed to build.  From that point of view, the ongoing real estate plans face difficulties whereas the solution of the problem under the circumstances seems to come to an end after years of debate.
• The revitalization of Hellinikon is the biggest projects of its kind in Europe and the most ambitious development project ever undertaken in Greece. The Project has been specifically designed to positively impact the local, regional and national economy, by adding significant new investments, employment opportunities and uses in key areas such as tourism, culture, entrepreneurship, R&D and the environment.

The Hellinikon Project, with a total area of 6,200,000 sqm, aims at becoming a new point of reference, a new direction and a new destination for the City of Athens.

The SHARE debates are the place where the International Experience of the speakers coming from all over the world meets the local panel of architects. We welcome all the participants of SHARE Athens to meet the “Round Table” the discussion and share their knowledge and experience on that issue. Social, Economic, Environmental, Design, and Architectural issues are to be discussed in two rounds according to the program of the event.

SHARE Athens 2018, International Architecture and Engineering Forum will take place on 27th November and brings together principal and senior architects from leading practices to discuss and gain inspiration from each other.

The lectures are concentrated on present and future, innovation in architecture and engineering, on explorations of new materials and technologies for designing a smart and sustainable built environment.

Important names that will be present at SHARE Athens on the 27th of September 2018 at the Benaki Museum include:

Wolf D. Prix (COOP HIMMELB(L)AU), Vassilis Sgoutas (Sgoutas Architects), Anouk Legendre (XTU Architects), Habibeh Madjdabadi (Habibeh Madjdabadi Architecture Office), Vaggelis Stylianides (3SK Stylianides Architects), Paolo Brescia (Open Building Research), Rena Sakellaridou (SPARCH), Luca Peralta (PERALTA- design & consulting), Paolo Brescia (OBR- Open Building Research), Perparim Rama (4MGroup), Mark Sutton Vane (Sutton Vane Associates), Tilemachos Andrianopoulos (TENSE Architecture), Nikiforidis Prodromos and Bernard Cuomo  (Nikiforidis Cuomo), Andrei Serbescu (AND BA).

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