During the short interwar period of the early 20th century, Athens
entered into a process of meteoric urban transformation which gave
her a unique place among European capital cities of the time. The
implementation of a settlement programme for hundreds of thousands
of refugees, following the 1922 Smyrna catastrophe, effected social
and economic metamorphoses, which, in their early steps, were not
devoid of patterns of social and spatial segregation. During the
1930s, notwithstanding manifold adversities, the capital city
encountered modernity, but she did so on her own terms. On the
ideological level, the place acquired a world-wide reputation for
two reasons. First, by the ambitious venture of unearthing
antiquities in the ancient agora and revealing the glory of ancient
Greece, even if a whole neighbourhood standing on the spot, which
for centuries had teemed with social exchange and commercial
transactions, had to be erased for that purpose. Second, by
imprinting her name on the 'Charter of Athens', the document
concluding the results of the 4th Congress of Modern Architecture
which she hosted, intrinsically linking her with the avant-garde
architectural theory and practice of the time. Furthermore,
state/governmental involvement in the production of the built
environment, occasionally supporting the private sector and
landowners in particular in their speculative intentions, provided
Athens with the infrastructure she demanded for exercising her role
as the capital city of Greece. The Marathon Dam, the underground
railway, the steam-powered electric plants, and many other
projects, implied advances through which the average man and woman
in the street could rejoice that modernization had taken deep roots
within Athenian daily life. Yet, it seems Athens walked alongside
modernism not within it. Very much like Narcissus, the handsome
young man from Boeotia, it might be that Athens looked at her
beautiful face mirrored as if in the still water of a lake;
overwhelmed by a strong feeling of exaltation and delight, she
stood there until she died.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
