Η κοινωνική κατοικία του χθες και του σήμερα: επανάχρηση - επανακατοίκιση των προσφυγικών συγκροτημάτων της Αθήνας

Abstract

This lecture addresses the issue of social housing, as held in Greece, after the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 and how it could be redefined today. The need for housing became imperative after the arrival of refugees and the Greek state gradually and with the assistance of foreign agents, introduced the necessary organisations to take on the daunting task of housing the refugees. The concepts of the welfare state and social housing are shown for the first time in the newly established Greek state. The construction activity increased, new homes were built, originally improvised and temporary, and then permanent and conform to the standards of European modernism. One hundred years later, in Athens and Piraeus, refugee groups are still observed and “alive”, battered and forgotten in time. However, some of them are still inhabited, while others are occupied by out-laws and some are completely empty. Many discussions have been made for the value and whether they should be preserved as monuments of our national identity or removed (demolished). At the same time, the period of economic crisis experienced by the Greek society today, results in the housing crisis. The same problem, then and now, addressed to different social groups and under different causes, requires immediate and effective response from the welfare state.Therefore, because of the relevance of the problem, it is proposed the re-habitation of refugee house groups, which are called for a second time to fulfill the purpose of their original creation.