Vocabulary

Akalyptos or “uncovered space”-the back side of polykatoikia

Ακάλυπτος (akalyptos means uncovered in greek) is the mandatory empty space in the back side of polykatikia and it is what remains of the land plot  when the permitted building coverage ratio is fully exploited and built. Its ultimate quality is exactly that it is uncovered, it exists due to a mere obligation to the…

Building block

Building block Οικοδομικό τετράγωνο (Ο.Τ.) is every single buildable land area, which is included between a validated street plan or between the borders of a settlement and is surrounded by common spaces. (NOK, General Building Regulation) The First General building code designated the building block as the minimum unit of urban planning and city formation,…

Statistics

A. Population analysis Socio-economic analysis / source: Municipality of Athens 25% loss of population since the maximum of 1981 which would be bigger if it wasn’t for the immigrants mostly from Albania, who settled down in Athens during this decade 23.5% official unemployment, almost 40% unofficial   B. Real estate Statistics 30,85 % vacant dwellings…

Community Land Bank

Τράπεζα Γης Land banks are public or community-owned entities created for a single purpose: to acquire, manage, maintain, and repurpose vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties –the worst abandoned houses, forgotten buildings, and empty lots.  Land banks replace those “liquidation” based systems ­ generally comprised of the sale of tax liens (the uncollected tax receivables of…

Horizontal Ownership

Οριζόντια Ιδιοκτησία Establishment of Horizontal Ownership is the act by which the owner of a property divides it and creates more self-sufficient and independent properties, each of which has a certain co-ownership percentage on the plot and on the common parts of the building (foundation, roof, yards and so on). A separate horizontal ownership may…

Oikopedo-Land Plot

 Οικόπεδο / Land for building an oikos (house) Every piece of urban land in Greek is termed ‘oikopedo’, which means land purposed for building. Τhe term points out  building’s preponderance over public space in urban practice and Greek culture. Imprinted in the language the prompt for over-exploitation & overbuilding prescribed the evolution of modern Athens.…

Antiparochi

Αντιπαροχή The antiparochi system was enabled by the 1929 law of horizontal ownership and according to it a landowner could turn over the plot to a constructor, usually a small scale construction company, in order to build a multi-storey apartment block receiving in exchange an agreed number of apartments in the finished building. Antiparochi became…

Polykatoikia

Πολυκατοικία Condominium/ apartment building Polykatoikia, the multi-storey apartment building, appeared as a building type in Athens all along 1910. Polykatoikia,though, as the social & legal contract which is the essence of it, was constituted and established with the 1929 law of horizontal ownership, according to which each apartment could have a different owner and the…

Typologies of empty buildings

With the apartment as a housing unit, the balance of the vertical stratification of classes in the apartment block of the 1960s has been disturbed. While the Greek version of the ‘Maison Domino’ has multiplied into hundreds of thousands of copies throughout the Attica basin, the centre of the city has gradually been abandoned and…