Onassis
What’s On
Book launch

37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks | Book presentation, discussion and documentary screening

Dates

Prices

Free entrance upon reservation

Location

Onassis Stegi
Reserve your seat online

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Wednesday
Time
19:00 — 22:00
Venue
Upper Stage

Information

Program

19:00 — 20:15 | Presentation of the book “37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks” - Discussion

20:15 — 20:30 | Intermission

20:30 — 22:00 | Film screening: “Builders, Housewives, and the Construction of Modern Athens”

Simultaneous broadcasting in the 4th-floor foyer

Admission to the Upper Stage of the Onassis Stegi will be on a first-come, first-served basis. In case of limited seating availability, the event will be broadcast simultaneously in the 4th-floor foyer.

Language and subtitles

The discussion will be conducted in Greek, without interpretation in English, and with simultaneous interpretation in Greek Sign Language.

The film will be shown with English subtitles.

Where to find the book "37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks"

The book will be available from December 4 in selected bookstores and retail points and will be further available for purchase at the Onassis Shop on the day of the event.

The book is edited by

Thomas Maloutas, Nikolina Myofa, Dimitris Balampanidis, and Ifigeneia Dimitrakou

A special publication with contributions by twenty-six writers dedicated to the most distinctive Athenian building type, the ‘polykatoikia.’ Narrations, recollections, personal experiences, photographs, and building regulations unfold through the pages of the book "37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks", revealing the portrait of a contemporary city. The discussion will be followed by the screening of the documentary "Builders, Housewives, and the Construction of Modern Athens" by Tassos Langis and Yiannis Gaitanidis.

How did the polykatoikia come into being? Who were the people residing there? What are the new cohabitation experiences in Athens? What is the profile of present-day tenants? A free ‘wanderabout’ in the city of Athens unfolds through the pages of the Onassis Foundation publication “37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks.” The book was born of a need to meet and understand the Athenian polykatoikia paradigm during the antiparochi (‘flats-for-land’) period. Through the experiences and stories of old and new residents, we unearth what lies inside these buildings—the symbols of an entire era.

Recounts, memories, personal experiences, photographs, diagrams, building codes, contracts, and operating regulations trace the histories of people and buildings while at the same time charting composite processes that transpire across the scale of the neighborhood and the Athenian society at large.

The stories of the book take place in many different areas of the wider Athenian center, such as Patissia, Kypseli, Victoria, Exarcheia, Gyzi, Ampelokipi, Syntagma, Kolonaki, Koukaki, Neos Kosmos, and Kallithea, among others.

Apartment buildings everywhere. Rows of them, one so suffocating close to the other. In the same way, our lives are bordering, somewhat suffocating, without any sense of privacy: “Stop shouting; the whole neighborhood will hear us; close the window; they can hear you from the skylight.”

—Excerpt from the book
In an open conversation with the book editors and guests from the fields of architecture, urban planning, and social sciences, the publication unveils for the first time at the Onassis Stegi Upper Stage.

Photo from the book "37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks"

Speakers

Panos Dragonas: Architect, Professor of Architecture & Urban Design, University of Patras

Thomas Maloutas: Researcher Emeritus, National Centre for Social Research; Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Harokopio University; Co-editor of the publication

Dimitra Siatitsa: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Crete; Co-author of the publication

Ioanna Theocharopoulou: Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University; Author of the book "Builders, Housewives, and the Construction of Modern Athens"

Dina Vaiou: Professor Emeritus of NTUA, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Nikos Souliotis (Senior Researcher, National Centre for Social Research) will moderate the discussion

Brief introductions

Dimitris Balampanidis: PhD in Urban Social Geography, Department of Geography, Harokopio University; Co-editor of the publication

Stavros-Nikiforos Spyrellis: Principal Researcher, National Centre for Social Research; Co-author of the publication

Photo from the book "37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks"

Screening of the film “Builders, Housewives, and the Construction of Modern Athens" (2021)

An Onassis Foundation production, directed by Tassos Langis and Yiannis Gaitanidis

A documentary telling the story of the Athenian polykatoikia and the (city) reconstruction through the lives of the anonymous lay builders behind the antiparochi. Who were those people arriving from the countryside to Athens with their wives after the Civil War and ‘cementing’ the city? Who ‘demolished’ the neoclassical buildings, and why did the Attica Basin become filled with apartment buildings? How did they learn and develop their craft? What was their background? What techniques and knowledge did they bring with them? How did they redevise their tools to meet emerging needs? How did they communicate and negotiate with the ‘educated’ architects? What were their wives’ requests? In other words, what was the story of their encounter with the ‘project of modernity’?

As long as these ‘co-authors’ remain invisible, the history of current-day Athens remains incomplete, if not also deeply deceptive.

This documentary is based on the titular book by Ioanna Theocharopoulou, revised and published in 2022 by the Onassis Foundation. The film premiered at the Athens International Film Festival 2021 (Official Competition).

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