Last Monday afternoon, the blissful summer lethargy that usually engulfs the long Athenian days in Exarcheion Square gave way to a sudden feeling of extraordinary unease.

Giorgos Lialiou’s report, published the day before in K, spoke of a plan for the immediate installation of the Attico Metro construction site.

The newspaper’s exclusivity mobilized the area’s residents to oppose the construction of a metro station on the square.

The organizers of the informal meeting (“Coordinator of Action for the Protection of the Exarchs”) called for vigilance in connection with the “invasion of sheet metal.” At the same time, strangers were throwing paints and trinkets into the entrance of the Attico Metro offices, signaling that the “kids” were not joking.

Two days later, the watchful eye was relaxed. The square looked more abandoned than ever: the flowerbeds and pits looked abandoned, rubbish everywhere, banners with slogans hung from the trees, the historic statue in the center of the square is almost unrecognizable from the consistent vandalism.

Between discarded cigarettes and empty beer cans, scattered leaflets with slogans against the construction of a metro station on the square spontaneously supported an atmosphere of revolutionary readiness.

Coincidentally, a series of complex traffic rules were introduced in Kolonaki last Monday, which will remain in effect until at least October. For many residents, this was the latest straw in the anger smoldering since the beginning of the year, when all the trees in the square were cut down overnight to make way for the construction of a new 4th line station under construction.

Although the latest configuration of the square did not have many fanatical supporters, many permanent residents and specialists in the area were psychologically unprepared for the scale of the unrest that awaited them. Of course, in the case of Kolonaki, we had no gatherings, no flyers, and even more so … trikes.

Reactions were limited to fiery Facebook posts, and the “fire” was put out before it really flared up. The bottom line, however, remains the same: the metro was demonized for the first time in its short Athenian history, merging two traditional city-centre districts that have taken very different paths since the post-colonial era.

Prevention and memoranda

As wild as the demand not to build the Exarchia station on the square of the same name may sound, for reasons that have more to do with the political physiognomy of the area and less with urban planning and urban transport, the inconvenient Truth is that Attico Metro has accustomed us to a modest refurbishment of squares and other public spaces after the completion of the (extremely important) projects it implements. The mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, agrees with this, which is why he signed a memorandum of cooperation with the company.

“We want the European project to be implemented in a European way,” he says. The memorandum provides, among other things, for holding architectural competitions for all seven areas, one way or another participating in the projects of the new 4th line.

Regarding the Kolonaki case, Kostas Bakoyannis wants to reassure: “There was a big transplant operation from the square to the municipal nursery in Goudi and I am happy to report that almost two-thirds survived. But we didn’t stay there. As the ecological balance has been upset and will be further disrupted as projects progress, and since we cannot wait until 2030, we have signed a contract with the Ministry of Infrastructure to supply new trees for planting throughout the basin to immediately make up for the current losses.”

When I ask Panagiotis Turnikiotis, Dean of the School of Architects at the National Technical University of Athens, what we can do to avoid the failures of the past, he emphasizes that “it is essential to have advance urban and architectural planning that will not cover only a limited area of ​​the square, but also the radius at least 500 meters around it to anticipate and address issues of accessibility, parking, and functionality of the wider area that are specifically affected by the operation of the new metro station. “.

“The main thing is to have a town-planning and architectural plan in advance within a radius of at least 500 meters around the square.”

Alternative to Tosica

The case of Tositsa Street as an alternative location for the Exarchia station has been investigated since the time of the previous government (SYRIZA – ANEL) and was considered prohibitive as an alternative solution for technical reasons, reminds professor and expert on Athens issues Mr. Turniket. “First, the section of Tositsa, which was closed to traffic, was rejected, since the bend of the underground tunnel exceeded any restrictions, and then the upper section was examined towards Notara and Spiridonos Trikoupi streets, where other insurmountable questions regarding the construction of the station were presented. , mainly due to the dense urban web.”

In 2018, at the initiative of the government, in cooperation with Attico Metro and with the participation of representatives of the scientific community, as Mr. Turnikiotis told us, which led to the (above-mentioned) conclusion that the relocation of the station is technically impossible and that any feasible and desirable intervention should be done on the surface of the city. Indeed, there are still many opportunities to improve the urban environment, as well as in other squares and metro stations. And the duty of the state, he points out, is “to deal with them in a timely manner with urban planning and architectural planning, in clear and timely cooperation with those responsible for the construction of the project, and not only in Exarchia, who are no exception, but in the whole complex and this necessary work.”

To NTUA professor Nikos Belavila, former president of the public company Regeneration of Athens SA and head of the SYRIZA-backed Piraeus for All municipal faction, Tositsa’s decision should not have gone unnoticed. He acknowledges that if the station is relocated and the 4th line is rerouted, major technical changes will be required, which in turn will increase the cost of construction. “All this is not unprecedented. We recently had a partially underground construction site in Maniatica, adjacent to Piraeus. In terms of cost increase, we have seen this very often in metro projects.”

“Spite”

Personally, from a conversation with Mr. Bellavilla, I have preserved most of his very well-aimed observations about the evil spirit of squares (and public spaces in general) after the completion of the work of the local subway. A few weeks ago, a professor at the Polytechnic Institute gave a tour of the three new Piraeus junction stations, which are expected to be operational in the fall.

“The station near the Municipal Theater is wonderful, a small Syntagma. When you go to the surface, the picture changes.” What explains this discrepancy, I ask him. “The problem is that for Attico Metro, the main project is almost exclusively the construction of stations, and things are going very well there. Therefore, he views the regeneration of the surface he excavated as a kind of return to society and, as a result, does not give it the importance it deserves. As a result, we have amazing underground stations and mediocre public spaces right above them. This mentality has to change.”

POINT OF VIEW

Training planning

Stavros Martinos*

Exarchia and Kolonaki squares are being reconstructed in connection with the creation of new metro stations with the promise of architectural competitions so that we don’t have the same problem as the squares designed and implemented by Attico Metro. in the early 2000s – that is, their feeling is completely indifferent and rather processing, while the areas in which they are located have a strong character.

However, architectural competitions are still, even now announced, perceived as a “decoration” of a ready-made situation: the surfaces of the squares are permeated with various components of the stations, such as elevators, air ducts, etc., and it becomes difficult to preserve valuable – now – trees. We take it for granted that line layout and station designs are non-negotiable, and the best we can hope for is some interesting top-level design. From this point of view, I think it is wrong that the reactions of the inhabitants take on a “political” coloring in public discourse, even when they seem hysterical.

Kolonaki and Exarchia are the same in this case, because no one asked those who live there: the call for bidding, in order to be fruitful, arises through consultations and considers various alternatives – in cooperation with the recipients who are residents – even for the location of the stations. Planning comes later to implement with the architecture the requirements of the declaration, which – in good cases – came about in a structured way, through some kind of participation. So, this is a step in the right direction, and it is obviously wrong to reset it, but there is much more to be done: to plan the preparation. There, as a state, we still act, “deciding and ordering.”

* Mr. Stavros Martinos is an architect.