Housing Greece

Housing Greece offers a critical perspective on state housing through the lens of emergency. Examining key episodes in Greece’s modern history, the book reveals how turbulent factors, such as migration flows, warfare, natural disasters, political instability, and economic crises have shaped state housing policy from its early developments until today as ad hoc interventions. Drawing on extensive archival research and fieldwork, each chapter is anchored in a specific emergency, from the 1922 refugee crisis following the Asia Minor Catastrophe to the 2008 economic meltdown and the 2014 Mediterranean refugee influx. Alongside these historical accounts, interviews with architects, urban planners, sociologists, and humanitarians connect past responses to today’s housing challenges.

• State of emergency as a lens through which to view state housing policy
• Historical crises in Greece’s modern history in dialogue with today’s housing challenges
• Based on extensive archival research, fieldwork, and interviews with experts from practice and academia

Maria Kouvari is an architect and researcher with a PhD in architectural history and preservation theory from ETH Zurich. Her research engages with notions of care, vulnerability, and historical invisibility. She is founder of “Children Matter,” a group within the European Architectural History Network.