Calls for protection of 1922 refugee architecture

The tent city of Kaisariani is seen in an archive photo from 1923, before it grew into a suburb of modest refugee housing, parts of which are still in evidence today. With 2022 marking the centennial of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, interest in its architectural legacy has grown and was the subject of a recent conference at the Fondation Hellenique in Paris. Echoing calls for a comprehensive plan to deal with the capital’s stock of buildings from that era, Amalia Kotsaki, one of the speakers at the event and an associate professor at the Technical University of Crete, told Kathimerini on Wednesday that under Greek law, buildings over 100 years old are considered historic and listed for protection. This, she warned, “raises the risk of their demolition to avert such a prospect,” adding that measures for their protection “remain sparse.” [Center for the Study and Promotion of Asia Minor Culture]