Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens
Book launch and film premiere in the United States and Canada
To celebrate the revised third edition of Ioanna Theocharopoulou’s book Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens (Onassis Foundation, 2022), the Onassis Foundation is hosting a wide-ranging discussion in the context of Archtober 2022 (NYC's Architecture and Design Month) about the relevance of this modern city, its architecture, and ancient history. In a parallel trajectory, the Onassis Foundation produced documentary, by Tassos Langis and Yiannis Gaitanidis, based on Ioanna Theocharopoulou’s book and sharing the same title, begins (also this fall in New York) its United States and Canada tour, as part of the official Architecture and Design Film Festival program (2022–23).
North American premiere at the Architecture and Design Film Festival 2022
The city of Athens is so much more than the classical architecture that adorns it since there is a vibrant energy, buzz, and density that fills its streets and neighborhoods. The film Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens (87 minutes, 2021) by Tassos Langis and Yiannis Gaitanidis unveils a new perspective of the city, examining the most distinctive Athenian building type—the polykatoikía—and the city's reconstruction by the anonymous lay builders and their housewives, who were the most unlikely “co-authors.” The documentary takes a deep dive into the lives of the provincials who came to Athens after the Civil War and sheds light on how they developed their craft and communicated with the educated architects. Based on the book of the same title by Ioanna Theocharopoulou, the film proposes a fascinating account of the provincials’ role and encounter with the “project of modernity.”
ADFF film screenings
September 30–October 1, 2022, New York: Cinépolis Cinemas: 260 W 23rd St: Friday, September 30, 6:45-8:45pm, Theatre 8 / Saturday, October 1, 4:15–6pm, Theatre 9.
November 2–5, 2022, Toronto
November 9–12, 2022, Vancouver
January 16–19, 2023, Los Angeles
January 26–29, 2023, Washington
February 2–5, 2023, Chicago
During the ADFF screenings in the United States and Canada, the third edition of the book will be available for purchase in collaboration with Actar Publishers.
Book launch & panel discussion at Archtober, New York
Thursday, October 13, 6–8pm
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012
Architectural historians have tended to disparage the lack of formal planning and the apparent homogeneity of Athen’s “box-like” concrete buildings. By casting Athens as a uniquely local mode of informal urbanism, a phenomenon that, in a broader sense, is found around the world and particularly in the “developing” world, Theocharopoulou’s book offers a critical re-evaluation of the city as a successful adaptation to circumstance, enriching our understanding of urbanism as a truly collective design activity. Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens advocates for an architectural history that allows access to the conceptual worlds and the imaginations of builders and inhabitants. This approach departs from a focus on structures designed exclusively by architects and planners, to explore processes—financial, cultural, and material—that rely on self-organization and community. These improvisations and adaptations, which succeeded in producing a dense and vibrant city, can, in turn, help us imagine how to create more sustainable and livable urban models today.
Speakers: Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research / Neni Panourgiá, Adjunct Associate Professor, The Prison Education Program, Psychology Department; Academic Adviser, The Justice in Education Initiative, Columbia University / Ioanna Theocharopoulou, Visiting Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Art and Planning, Cornell University; Author, Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens
