“What you see is an empty house without furniture,” Kostas Bakoyannis tells me, looking at the lower part of Syntagma Square after the area was cleared of the building sheet. This is not known to the Athenians, who frantically take pictures for uploading to social networks and complain about the lack of green spaces and shaded areas; the fact that the interference with the Constitution is revealed in August does not help the project’s reputation. The place is in full swing, the marble living rooms are still the same, the planted 16 gorse and 8 grevilleas still cannot give shade, the pergolas are still bare. Even the two fountains designed at Ermou Height won’t start cooling until mid-September.

So what’s going on? Won’t the communication evil that haunts the mayor of Athens after the scandalous experiment of the “Great Parade” swallow up the theoretically positive reform of the Constitution? The matter is much more complicated. What was done in the lower part of the square is what should have been done before the 2004 Olympics. It is the result of an architectural competition (which is not at all obvious for many urban renovations in our country) and adds 1300 sq. meters of valuable public space to a critical point for pedestrian traffic, effectively offloading Ermou, providing vital space to those who need it most: pedestrians, not cars. The number of lanes has been reduced to four, but there is no transportation expert to claim that this interferes with the smooth flow of vehicles coming from the stadium. On the contrary: the previous alloprosal situation with seven lanes, which later (Fillellino) became three again (as in Stadiou), created more problems than it solved (bottle effect). In theory, the reduced lanes would make life harder for taxi drivers, who have traditionally camped in the bus lane at Ermow Height to “trap” customers when it’s forbidden.

– Where are the greens?

In terms of social benefit (every modern city in 2022 encourages soft mobility, not cars) and the adequacy of transport, the projects in our Constitution go a little further than cities. The objections mainly concern the architectural and functional part of the interventions, which are summarized in the constant refrain of every criticism heard over the past 25 years about the renovation of the squares in Greece: “Where is the greenery?”. It’s almost a reflex reaction that confuses many architects.

The two planned fountains will not operate until mid-September.

“The lower part of Syntagma Square is primarily a space for pedestrians, the expansion of the sidewalks facilitates entry and exit from the commercial street of Athens itself,” explains Vienna-based architect Dimitris Manikas, head of the original team that signed the project. an original study for the entire square and won first prize in an architectural competition in 1999, together with his colleagues Dora Papadimitriou and Leonidas Georgiadis. However, from the first images he sees, he feels satisfied. As for the main shading issue, he recommends a bit of patience until the project is complete.

As for the final choice of trees, there seems to have been some difference of opinion: Mr. Manikas was more inclined towards planting larger trees, similar to those in the square, while Ms. Papadimitriou supported the idea of ​​planting smaller trees that would fit the scale of a particular area and which, with their vibrant colors (see koutsoupies), will evoke a different feeling in passers-by. “The trees that have been finally selected,” the architect Dora Papadimitriou, who acts as a supervisor in cooperation with the technical services of the municipality, tells me, “may not grow in height as quickly, but they reveal their crown much earlier, a fact. it’s useful for creating shadows.”

Indeed, what are the main outstanding issues, I ask Vassilis-Foivos Axiotis, Deputy Mayor for Urban and Building Infrastructure and Urban Planning, who also serves as the Department of Urban Planning and Urban Environment. “For the operation of two fountains, place opening and closing canopies on pergolas (on their roof), as well as arches where climbing plants will grow on both sides of the bases of the structure.” Architect Dora Papadimitriou also says she is pleased with the progress of the work. “Very good work has been done, despite the many problems that arose along the way,” he tells K. We are talking about finding antiquities (the information evaluates them as “quite important”, official information is expected from the services of the Ministry of Culture), but also about the usual mess with engineering networks, which completely disrupted the schedule (a year instead of 6-8 months).

The only elements not included in the original study were the fountains. “They were added when we realized we couldn’t plant two trees on the original design because there was natural gas infrastructure right below them.” As for the pergolas, which look rather unattractive at the moment, they were used to shelter the tables of neighboring restaurants in a unified aesthetic environment. Let’s hope that the existing specifications will be respected. The five pavilions at the bottom of the square are the last (but not the last) obstacle to the progress of the reconstruction. With some surprise, I hear Vice Mayor Vassilis-Fivos Axiotis say that each booth is entitled to 12 square meters. I don’t know if they are respected today, but the work on the Constitution is definitely an opportunity to restore spontaneous order. Fortunately, Kostas Bakoyannis thinks the same way.

“Cursed” squares 2004