{"id":5626,"date":"2018-04-02T12:43:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T09:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rchumanities.gr\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2022-01-10T12:43:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T10:43:22","slug":"constantina-kalfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rchumanities.gr\/en\/constantina-kalfa\/","title":{"rendered":"“Towards an alternative historiography of (modern Greek) architecture, 1945-67”"},"content":{"rendered":"
Research Proposal<\/span>Conference<\/span>Research Results<\/span>Short Bio<\/span>Publications<\/span><\/div>
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Summary of the Research Proposal<\/h4>\n

The proposed historical research attempts an alternative historiography of modern Greek architecture.It focuses on the period 1945-1967 during which, as it is generally believed, architecture in Greece lost its ability to address to the masses and to the question of mass housing, and urban planning\u00a0 proved powerless to impose its goals. Urbanization and urban housing entered an “automatic urbanization” regime where it seemed that space planning experts were playing a minor role.<\/p>\n

This research’s central hypothesis is to critically review this role attributed to the “experts” of space in Greece, focusing on two influential architects-planners, who in the critical period under study were additionally public officials, namely Constatinos Doxiadis and Prokopis Vassiliadis. Doxiadis was one of the basic figures of Reconstruction (first as vice-minister as Deputy Minister and General Director and then as Coordinator of Reconstruction, and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Coordination). Vassiliadis in essence follows Doxiadis (after the dissolution of the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction into the Ministries of Public Transportation for one and Public Works for the other, on 1954) for the issues of public housing (at the Directory of Studies of the Housing Service of the Ministry of Public Works). On the one hand Doxiadis is said to be responsible for the 28th Resolution (for he publicly supported it vigorously), which is considered that it has created favorable conditions for private-led building construction, and on the other hand, Prokopis Vassiliadis seems to have played a certain role \u2013as the research claims based on specific findings\u2013, into the introduction of building coefficients (which are a factor for surplus value in the Greek model of automatic urbanization). The policy of self-help in housing, followed by Doxiadis to resolve the extraordinary and widespread housing problems mainly of the Greek rural population, which seems to be into the spirit of broader geopolitical housing strategies, will be of particular importance for the research. Characteristically, as the survey reveals, when in 1955, Jacob Crane, who, more than anyone else, shaped and implemented the US policy for housing assistance and who had close contacts with Doxiadis, was asked by the National Mortgage Bank of Greece to express views on the housing problem of the country, he viewed the Greek model of the reconstruction of private homes as a real phenomenon<\/em> and suggested its continuation.<\/p>\n

Contributing to a more general historiographical shift concerning the study of the history of architecture, one that has begun to be interested in objects that traditionally have been classified as non-architectural, and in the role of architect as a consultant-specialist in a global network of intercultural collaborations (and not just as a creator-designer), this research aspires to highlight the historical role of architecture in the emergence of systems that operate autonomously, separately from architecture, and yet they are can define it. By studying original archives, largely unexplored in existing literature, the research attempts to understand modern architecture in Greece as interwoving with other much wider cultural manifestations and decisions that do not solely deal with the physical design of space.<\/p>\n

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This research project was funded by the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH), with the support of<\/i>
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To view the conference\u2019s program in Greek, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n