Helen Fessas-Emmanouil Cultural interaction, modernity and identity. Τhe friendship and cooperation between a German and a Greek architect (1899-1914) This presentation is based on my book* about the architectural friendship and collaboration between a German and a Greek architect2 which was the product of lengthy research. It approaches the architecture of the late 1890s and the fourteen turbulent years preceding World War I, a highly significant, but inadequately studied period of European architecture, which coincides with the decline of historicism and eclecticism and the dawn of anti-academic modernism. The period is approached through the relationship and correspondence between pioneer architect Aristotelis Zachos (Kastoria 1871 - Athens 1939) and his philhellene professor and first employer Josef Durm (Karlsruhe 1837-1919). The content of the two men’s letters and documentary material refers to major architectural, town planning, cultural and political developments in this period. In addition, the work of these two architects and the dialogue between them provides insight into recurring issues, such as cultural interaction, identity, the spirit of place (genius loci), the relations between modernity and tradition, the protection of historical monuments, architectural evaluation and architectural competitions. The presentation is thus structured into three parts. The first part provides the information required for today’s readers to understand the friendship between the two architects. It begins with general information about the era in which they collaborated and corresponded. Then it sketches the historical context in Germany and Greece at that time, emphasizing the intellectual climate in each, the particularities of Karlsruhe and the duchy of Baden, architectural trends, the protection of historical monuments, archaeology and urban development. An attempt is likewise made to approach the architects’ personalities, careers and the relationship between them, so as to associate their course with major historical events. The second part of the presentation includes evidence of Zachos’ architectural collaboration with Durm in Karlsruhe between 1901 and 1905. The correpondence between the two architects and their activities from 1905 to 1914, is the topic of the third part. ________________________________________ *Helen Fessas-Emmanouil, Αριστοτέλης Ζάχος & Josef Durm, Η αλληλογραφία ενός πρωτοπόρου αρχιτέκτονα με τον μέντορά του (Aristotelis Zachos & Josef Durm. The correspondence between a pioneer architect and his mentor), Potamos Editions, Athens 2013.

This paper examines the design of educational institutions in Athens and its vicinity during the first decade following Greek Independence. The revival of ancient architectural forms played a key role in this development. Still, the selection of ancient models and their fusion with nineteenth-century design paradigms have not yet been studied sufficiently. The present article aims to fill this lacuna by focusing on the educational institutions designed by two major architects of the 1830s: Christian Hansen and Stamatios Kleanthis. These buildings are used as case studies to understand each architect’s choice and modern interpretation of ancient models. This helps to gain a better sense of the variety of architectural idioms that marked the reception of classical architectural canons in nineteenth-century Greece.

Thesis General Introduction NTUA School of Architecture

The infiltration of British architectural thought in Greece and in the Greek architectural press during the thirty-year period from 1967 to 1996 is mainly associated with the two most important periodical publications of the era: Orestes Doumanis' Architecture in Greece and the magazine Tefchos by Koumbis, Papoulias, Simaioforidis, and Tzirtzilakis. Its mathematical curve is not straight, but shows peaks at different periods, often linked to the relationships of the publishers of the two magazines with Greek architects active in the educational and professional architectural scene of the United Kingdom. The first such peak corresponds to the period 1966-1973 and concerns the establishment of Panos Koulermos in Athens and the creation in 1966 of the office Kalogeras – Amourgis - Koulermos and the Workshop of Environmental Design Athens Greece (WEDAG), as well as the relationship developed by the three architects with Orestes Doumanis. The second is marked by the close collaboration of Dimitris Porphyrios with Architecture in Greece between 1977-1982. The third and least traceable of the three corresponds to the period 1980-1987 and relates to the founding of the Greek branch of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Athens in 1980 by Elias Zenghelis and his students at the Architectural Association school in London, Elias Veneris and Stavros Aliferis. Finally, the fourth peak, corresponding to the period 1989-1996, is associated with the activities of George Simaioforidis and the founding in 1989 of the magazine Tefchos in Athens.

Challenging the long-established idea of the Mediterranean as the cradle of modern architecture, this contribution argues that due consideration should be given to moments of profound change, thereby splitting the Mediterranean into its fragments. We may thus restore to its extraordinary cities the many and varied architectural traditions that were able to nurture and blend: the much-debated mediterraneità (Mediterraneity) turns out to be far less ‘monolithic’ in its expression. Along this line of thoughts, schools and museums built in Greece from 1923 to the aftermath of WWII may well reveal the role of architecture, when called upon to express the founding values of a collective identity. The dialectic between tradition and innovation, eclecticism and modernism, uncovers its meaning case by case.

The aim of the paper is a presentation of the architecture in Southeastern Central Greece during 13th and 14th centuries. Numerous monuments which can be dated with some certainty in the period under consideration — the long period between the Latin and Ottoman conquest — have survived in the several regions of Greece. The majority of those are, of course, religious architecture monuments, though there are also a fair number of secular monumental buildings, such as defensive works of urban centers and scattered in the countryside fortified complexes which served as the new rulers' residences. As far as typology is concerned, church architecture in Central Greece during the 13th and 14th centuries is characterized, on the one hand, by the continuation of the use of old building types and, on the other, by the great dissemination of the so cold “cross-vaulted”, a new church type which first appeared in the 13th century. Most of the surviving churches are small single nave, vaulted basilicas or simple “cross-vaulted”. The bigger ones belong to the cross-in-square church type. There are, however, some peculiar big churches, like the one of St. Demetrius in Chania of Avlonari, Euboea. In terms of morphology, architecture in Central Greece during the period under consideration constitutes, without any doubt, a continuation of the Middle Byzantine “École Grecque”. However, special characteristics, which differentiate it from its predecessor, can be traced. These are: a. The variety of forms, expressed by the different stylistic trends which very frequently are found within the same building. b. The Frankish influence, either direct (use of gothic forms), or indirect (changes in the character of architecture).

In his Modern Architecture since 1900 (1982) William J.R. Curtis attempts to present a “balanced, readable overall view of the development of modern architecture from its beginning until the recent past” and to include the architecture of the non-western world, a subject overlooked by previous histories of modern architecture. Curtis places authenticity at the core of his research and uses it as the criterion to assess the historicity of modern architecture. While the second edition (1987) of Curtis’ book appeared with just an addendum, for the third edition (1996) he undertook a full revision, expansion and reorganization of the content. This paper proposes that Curtis presented a more ‘authentic’ account of the development of modern architecture in other parts of the world with the third edition of his book. In the first edition of Modern Architecture since 1900, Greece appears only as inspiration to the work of Le Corbusier: the Acropolis is regarded as having made the greatest impression in the memory of the modern master. It is not until the third edition that Curtis discusses Greek modern architecture, embodied in the work of Dimitris Pikionis in the late 1930s and later on in the 1950s. It is also not until the 1996 edition that Greece is ‘authentically’ addressed in terms of ‘national identity’, ‘universalism’ or ‘regionalism’. Between the first and the third editions of the book, regionalism in architecture was debated and framed in seminal essays and conferences by Curtis himself, Paul Rudolph and Kenneth Frampton. Focusing the attention on the example of Greek architecture, this paper will seek to discern developments in Curtis’ discourse on regionalism between all of Modern Architecture since 1900 from inspiration to authenticity.

Athens’s architecture from the 1830s to the 1950s ranges from Neoclassicism and Eclecticism to Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Modernism. The post-World War II period brought significant changes to the Athenian built environment. As the rural population accumulated in the city center, devastated by the Second World War and the ensuing three-year Civil War, the need for cheap and readily available accommodation emerged. Over a period of two decades, without any organized governmental policy or planning, the majority of existing buildings were demolished and substituted with largely nondescript blocks of flats. The destruction of existing architecture resulted in the dramatic deterioration of the built environment and, eventually, the degradation of quality of life in the city center. Today, an unidentified number of old buildings exist in the city center, the only remains of the pre-war period and culture. Their current conditions vary, from derelict carcasses to restored residences of organizations or individuals. Their present and past life is mapped in the building database www.ktiriothiki.com, whose aim is to engage people and researchers in a discussion on upgrading the current Athenian living space.