Weekend in the center of Athens. The temperature exceeds 26 degrees Celsius. At a quick glance the tourists stand out from the locals because of their clothes. The former are completely summer-dressed, the latter simply wear short-sleeved tops and have their cardigans in their hands or tied around their waists, in case it gets chilly and they catch a cold.
Also, the first ones walk and look for food, looking curiously at those who are standing in queues in scattered parts of the center. Another sight worth a photo. Some take the courage to ask a group of 20-somethings standing outside Megaro Mela, on the pedestrian street of Aiolou: “Excuse me, what is going on?”. A group of 20-somethings are wondering in Greek how to explain Open House in English. They are content with the simple “Free building tours”. Tourists notice the line, get discouraged by its length, and leave. The Athenians wait patiently and move the queue to a shady place. It is very hot for April.
“Excuse me, what is going on?” A group of 20-somethings are wondering in Greek how to explain Open House in English. They are content with “Free building tours”.
This year, the Open House of Athens has somewhat of an anniversary character, as it completes ten years. The young volunteers who give the tours of the buildings make sure to mention it. It was the spring of 2014, when public and private buildings opened their doors free of charge to the public and turned the capital into a living museum consisting of exhibits scattered in its various corners. Athens was the second city in Greece to host this international architectural action (Thessaloniki started in 2012), which year by year is growing, becoming known (mostly by word of mouth) and becoming more and more popular, regardless of age .
Supplies, clarifications and comments
Two important supplies one needs to visit the Open House are to organize one’s visits with a plan and to be equipped with patience. Once the open buildings are announced on the website, visitors rate the buildings based on their taste and jot down their opening hours and location on a piece of paper, trying to catch them all. Practically, it is impossible. Either because of the distance between them or because of the wait. Especially in buildings that are opening for the first time and that have been linked to some historical event or have been shown by the media, the wait can even exceed an hour – patience is therefore necessary in this case.
Outside the Bagion in Omonia, ignoring the prying eyes of tourists entering and exiting the bakery or commuters looking around in case they came out of the wrong underground station exit, the queue moves swiftly. The young volunteers scan the QR codes with the personal details of the people waiting to enter and be guided. Iasonas, who has traveled from Chania to participate voluntarily in the organization, begins the historical review of the building according to the plan and the texts composed by his team. Some older people quietly complain: “Come on, tell us about Omonia, as if we haven’t “eaten” our lives here.” Some a little louder: “Turn up the volume, it’s noisy and we can’t hear anything.”
On the first floor of the hotel, guests take their mobile phones out of their trouser pockets and open the cameras around their necks. Their eye falls on the faded mirror and the damaged frescoes in the great hall. Jason clarifies that they depicted Pompeii, but shortly before it was declared a monument, the then owner decided to paint them, so as not to have to bear the cost of their preservation.
“Criminal act. I wonder why no one calculates History,’ comments an elderly lady, as a student’s photographic gaze falls on the shiny ribbons, remnants of a party child, hanging from the ceiling. The debate surrounding the use of the buildings continues in the hall, tempers rise, but as soon as the tour comes to an end, spirits calm down and all the visitors turn to the next building they want to visit and forget what they said and what, what did they hear
Emilia and Vlasia, graduate and student respectively of the School of Civil Engineering, who were standing in front of us, are heading towards Piraeus. “I like impressive buildings, like the Tower of Piraeus,” says the first. “And the new ones,” adds the second. Both are interested in getting ideas, comparing the past with the present and seeing what has changed over the years in the city’s architecture.
WWF Greece in Exarchia.
In “Sophocleus”
What has certainly changed over the years is the attendance of people. There may be scattered posters communicating the action, but I feel that the biggest role in the popularity of the Open House is played by the traditional “word of mouth” tactic. Likewise in Thessaloniki. From a personal point of view, the telematics systems of OASTH may have advertised it at the bus stops, but, essentially, the one who went to a building that he always passed, such as e.g. the Turkish consulate, he communicated his experience and subconsciously motivated his acquaintances to accompany him the next time it was organized.
“A friend of ours told us about the Open House from someone else and I was eager to visit some. I have nothing to do with architecture, but I like to photograph buildings,” says 23-year-old Yiannis as he and his group waited to enter Megaro Mela, one of the National Bank buildings that opened their doors to the public for the first time. forming a queue that cut the traffic of the pedestrian street of Aeolos in two.
The picture in the Stock Exchange building in Sophocleous was no better, in terms of waiting, but it was of enormous sociological interest. By eavesdropping, you understood that the under 30s confuse the Stock Market with Greek pop culture. This is what one infers if one happens to hear from the speaker of a girl’s mobile a part of Something of Kate Garbi who says: “I don’t care if you have a name in the market/ and shares strong in Sophocleus”. Apparently, a photo was uploaded on Instagram with the specific lyrics of the song playing in the background. Others are still dazzled by the impressive murals of the small Stock Exchange in Pesmazoglou and the fact that for years it housed a supermarket station for the employees of the National Bank, until the 90s.
The older ones had an innate curiosity to see what the famous “Sophocles” looks like, in which they played and lost or won fortunes in the 90s, before the “bubble” burst. “Because it’s close to my workplace and I was curious to see what’s behind the closed door, the Stock Exchange was one of the buildings I wouldn’t have been able to visit otherwise,” shares Ms. Maria, a civil servant who discovered Open House random and has decorating as a hobby.
Despite the hearsay and talk, the tour was also a “bubble”. The interior of “Sophocleus” was an empty hall with an impressive ceiling. Of course, it was very satisfying for Instagram content. It would have been better if we had visited the Pesmazoglou Stock Exchange.
Buses and junkyards
An unexpected incident occurred further north, in Exarchia, outside the WWF headquarters in Charilaou Trikoupi, which is housed in a brutalist building by Michalis Souvatzidis that has been renovated in 2022 and is a model of bioclimatic architecture in the center of Athens. Traditionally, tours start outside the buildings, so that visitors can observe the construction details. But what happens when there is a bus stop opposite the building? Inevitably, passengers and driver look puzzled, the public smiles awkwardly and squishes to allow disembarking people to pass, dragging their carts, loaded with vegetables from the street market of Kallidromi.
The sounds of the old man with the Datsun outside the single-family house of A. Xydis in Mets, on the hill of Ardittos, were also unexpected. “Increased interest” is too short a phrase to describe the crowd of people who formed a huge queue on the sidewalk of Archimedes and the speed of the guided tour inside the residence, which was designed in 1961 by Aris Konstantinidis on behalf of the diplomat and art critic Alexandrou Xydis. It was enough to face her from the balcony of the detached house. “I can’t describe to you how lucky you are to be inside such an important building for modern Greek architecture, as this year it opens its doors for the first time and – I’m afraid – for the last time,” repeats the young woman who guides us around the single-family house .
Its interior was empty, as the new owner who is going to settle there, shapes it knowing the importance of the building. The clicking of cameras breaks the silence in the rooms. The architects photograph the corners and steps of the residence.
“We mainly want to visit these buildings. Buildings by architects such as Konstantinidis, Valsamakis and Krokos, which are mainly residences and you cannot visit them”, comment three girls, Maria, Eleni and Fotini. Instead, local tourists capture the view of Athenian apartment buildings from the balconies and discover an Athens they would otherwise never explore. More authentic than any human and truer than any story ever told or written about her.
Tags: interesting buildings #10th Athenian Open House
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