page_title: Modern architecture in Athens
section_title: The interwar modern movement in Athens
hierarchical_section_title: Modern architecture in Athens / The interwar modern movement in Athens
caption_attribution_description: English: Primary school in the district of Makrygianni near the Athens Acropolis in Greece. It was designed in 1931 by Patroklos Karantinos.
context_page_description: Modern architecture in Athens flourished during two periods, between 1930–1940 and between 1950–1975. Influenced by the European modern movement led by Le Corbusier and other architects, Greek architects tried to adapt these principles into Greek practice. However, conservatism was often a hindering factor and usually both classically inspired as well as modernist buildings were built during the same periods.
context_section_description: Despite the initial conservatism, modern architecture became much more prominent during the end of the 1920s. Recent graduates of the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) which was founded in 1917, as well as graduates from other European architectural schools managed to make Modernism much more popular. A very ambitious plan was the construction of many public schools, not only in Athens but in all of Greece, by the Ministry of Education of the 1928–1932 Venizelos government. The program was led by architect Nikos Mitsakis (1899–1941), a graduate of the NTUA, who, in 1930, was appointed director of the office for the construction of the new schools. The designs of the new schools are based on Le Corbusier's principles, are completely unadorned with large horizontal windows, and are built with abundant and cheap materials such as stonemasonry and reinforced concrete.  Some of the most important examples of modern school architecture are Dimitris Pikionis's school under Mount Lycabettus designed in 1931, Kyriakos Panagiotakos's school in Pangrati designed in 1933, and many others. During the fourth congress of CIAM that took place in Athens in 1933, the public schools were much discussed. During his visit in Athens for the congress, Le Corbusier visited a school designed by Panagiotakos on Liosion Street and wrote "Compliments de Le Corbusier" on its wall.
  The cityscape of Athens in the 1930s was formed, though, by the great number of modern private apartment buildings that were built during that decade. Many neighbourhoods of Athens saw a construction spree fuelled by a more powerful middle and upper-middle class that were friendly to modernism and wanted to invest in property, as well as by the increase of population. Such neighbourhoods include Kolonaki, Exarcheia, Kypseli, the area around Amerikis Square, and other central areas.
  Influenced by Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Erich Mendelsohn, as well as more conservative architects such as Michel Roux-Spitz, virtually every apartment building that was built in Athens during that decade followed this style. These buildings are characterized by the bay windows which can protrude up to 1.4 metres under the 1929 General Building Regulation, the non-existent or subtle ornamentation such as occasional Art Deco motifs, especially on ironwork, and spacious entry halls. They often have permanent decorative pergolas on the terraces of the top floors. The use of bay windows produces a plasticity effect to the façades. An example of an apartment building with completely unadorned façades and many bay windows is the famous Ble Polykatoikia near Exarcheia Square designed in 1932 by Kyriakos Panagiotakos. Other architects used bolder Corbusian features on their buildings with flat façades without bay windows and with long horizontal windows. One such example is the apartment building on Stournari and Zaimi Streets designed by Thoukydidis Valentis and Polyvios Michailidis in 1933.
  Although most private buildings were built in a modern style, most public prestige buildings during the 1930s were still built according to a simplified classical style, as mentioned above. Only some special-purpose public buildings were built according to modernist principles. They include; the apartment buildings on Alexandras Avenue designed in 1933 by Kimon Laskaris and Dimitrios Kyriakos and built by the government to accommodate refugees of the 1923 population exchange; the Sotiria Hospital designed in 1931 by Ioannis Despotopoulos; the wing for the laundry and kitchen at the Sotiria Hospital designed in c. 1937 by Periklis Georgakopoulos; and some industrial buildings.
caption: A primary school in Makrygianni near the Acropolis of Athens. It was designed in 1931 by Patroklos Karantinos.[13]
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