A self-organising community in the iconic Prosfygika buildings in Athens fears eviction under a renovation plan unveiled by authorities.
Eleni Stamatoukou
The Greek Modernist Prosfygika buildings were designed by architect and engineer Kimon Laskaris and civil engineer Dimitris Kyriakou and built in two phases from 1933 to 1936 to house Greek refugees from Asia Minor.
With a total area of more than 17,000 square metres, they consist of 228 apartments – 177 owned by the Region of Attica and 51 privately-owned. The Ministry of Culture has designated the buildings protected monuments.
The Attica authorities have shrugged off the complaints triggered by their renovation plan. Last month, Regional Governor Nikos Hardalias – a member of Greece’s ruling centre-right New Democracy party – said there was nothing to stop current residents from being accommodated in the renovated buildings, once the criteria for granting the use of social housing are decided.
But Panagiotis Antoniou, the legal representative of the defence committee, said state and regional authorities had failed to offer an “alternative solution to the housing issue”.
“It is not possible for these people and their collectives to not have a say in a plan that will in reality displace the most vulnerable part of them,” Antoniou told BIRN in one of the ground-floor apartments.
“We have formed a legal team that, in the event of an evacuation and repression, will undertake the legal defence of the residents and people living in Prosfygika, many of whom, in such an undesirable case, will be faced with indictments.”
The committee, which includes lawyers, archaeologists and even healthcare professionals, argues that the renovation work can be done gradually with the residents’ own resources and the help of crowdfunding.
According to Papaioannou, the architect, the redevelopment plan foresees extensive intervention, such as the removal and replacement of plasterwork, potentially erasing features of historical significance.
“When intervening in a listed building, it is essential to preserve sections of plaster that are still intact, so that the memory and the patina of time engraved in the materials remain,” Papaioannou told BIRN. “Of course, it should not be forgotten that in several parts of the façades there are holes from bullets and shrapnel from the December 1944 events, which must evidently be preserved.”
The events he referred to were violent clashes between British-backed government forces and the left-wing National Liberation Front, when Prosfygika was hit. The building has long been steeped in the culture of Greek left-wing resistance.
The culture of squats spread in Greece in the 1980s, initially in response to rent increases but later as hubs of social, cultural and political movements promoting a different way of life and organisation in opposition to capitalism.
“The Region’s plan first aims to erase the historical heritage of the refugees from Asia Minor, from the part of the resistance to the present day, to evacuate it so that it does not constitute an example of a community and of course to exploit it within the framework of profitable initiatives,” said Antoniou.
Social tensions
