The skyscraper going up on the development of the old Athens airport at Elliniko on the capital’s southern coast has been drawing a lot of comments, many of them contradictory. The most negative of these comments tend to put forward emotional, aesthetic and ideological arguments; they also attract the most attention. The truth is that it is way too soon to judge what the development of the Elliniko plot, as well as that of nearby Agios Kosmas, will look like once they’re done.
Personally, I am more concerned about sprawl than I am about vertical growth. I see more problems emerging from the expansion of construction activities on both sides of the coastal highway than from the construction of a high-rise. Indeed, the new skyscraper provides an opportunity to talk about the issue of breath and height in this city.
We have been taught in Greece to consider high-rise buildings as a bad thing and to overlook the fact that this is one of the very few countries in the world that doesn’t have very tall buildings (with the exception of a handful built during the 1967-1974 dictatorship, when the regime scrapped height restrictions). We have been taught to consider Athens an ugly city without being taught how to hold an organized discussion on ways to improve it.
