Our house is the place where we see our loved ones, there we rest, make love, read, and live. Less and less houses are built in the suburbs and more and more maisonettes are coming along. Many apartment buildings and loft-apartments are being built in the city center. Athens is changing and no one can say how it will look tomorrow.

The Greek Architecture Institute organized an exhibition called “My Home in Athens from the 20^th to the 21^st Century,” which tracks this period. It will be displayed on Peireos Boulevard in the new Benaki Museum from January 20^th till March 15^th. Because of this Kathimerini newspaper published the comments of some famous Greek architects about the metamorphosis of their city.

A new poor class with a lot of debts

Dimitris Philipidis 

The bourgeoisie is almost gone and a new poor class is coming out with a lot of debts. Also we have thousands of unsold apartments in the older buildings. The social class, which can afford a new apartment, is that of the economic elite. For the representatives of this class is not enough only to spend but to build monuments from the apartment-mausoleum type in a complete control environment. 

Apartments for contemporary nomads

Zisis Kotionis

http://www.heliarch.gr/BIENNALE/ENOTITA3/KOTIONIS/Kotionis.htm

Compared to before, the contemporary architecture is oriented more towards the needs of the society rather than the environment. Among falling apart buildings, new architect practices are coming along for their reconstruction. Young couples – hetero and homo sexual, families with one parent, artists and vanguards, who avoid the idea of a Greek family create new cultures for the city co-existence. They rebuild and remake apartments – professional and industrial spaces and transform them in a fantastic way.

A new trend in living outside of the city is coming, which is still on an academic level. We bypass the thought of a luxury apartment and go to researches for contemporary practices of living, where a contemporary nomad way of life is being sketched – with light, temporary, made up, and imaginary constructions. If the plans which right now, are on experimental level, start being implemented, then in the future we will have apartments, which will have less energy expenses and will be cheaper.