In the last week of July, Naxos was not yet full of people. So the chef of a small and medium-sized tavern on the island had time for a short break in the company of his electronic cigarette. At some point, he struck up a conversation with two buyers, an Athenian couple, and asked them to look at the undeveloped slope of an imposing hill, bathed in the last light of day. “See that slope?” he asked them. “Well, it’s completely sold out and it will be filled with houses at the latest in three years. Naxos is being built like crazy.”

This summer, the first (almost) “normal” in two years of the pandemic, many have seen things on vacation that they have never seen before. The conclusion is general and does not apply (only) to holidays that are not available for some budgets this year. The return to summer normalcy has opened up an almost… bulimic landscape: new ultra-luxury complexes and hotels, more beach bars and sun loungers reminiscent of a furniture exhibition, more ambitious culinary projects “on the wave”, more aggressive cafe-bars. serving brunches in the forgotten settlements of the once barren lineage. Like a lid on a boiling pot, the Greek summer has shown us a face this year that has frightened some.

I found the architect Prodromos Nikiforidis (better known for the regeneration project of Nea Paralia in Thessaloniki in collaboration with Bernard Cuomo) vacationing on his beloved Thassos. Since I have never been to the island, I assumed that the farther a place is from the Cyclades, the less it is at risk of uncontrolled construction. “Unfortunately, Thassos is being built at a fast pace and with the worst architecture,” he tells me.

At the same time, however, the ever-growing market for vacation homes, luxury complexes, hotels and airbnbs has given a lot of work to hundreds of architecture firms trying to recover from the impact of the crisis. Indeed, are the architects themselves responsible for the exuberant building model (above-ground or underground) with hundreds of square meters and “water tanks” (individual pools) that has prevailed and often receives appropriate awards? “Obviously, we all have a responsibility,” Mr. Nikiforides answers bluntly. “Quality architecture does not concern me as long as it changes the landscape. With such a budget, it is relatively easy to create something that will be printed in magazines. But the genius of the place (the spirit of the place) went for a walk.”

“With a budget like that, it’s relatively easy to create something that gets printed in magazines. But the genius of the place (the spirit of the place) went for a walk.”

The truth is that the big architectural firms of Athens and Thessaloniki usually do everything to soften the exorbitant demands of their financially strong clients. Of course, there are painful compromises, but the big harm is not so much in the pools as in the feeling that there is no barrier to construction. Thus, even with the best of intentions, the forms that the tourism economy imposes on the landscape are not always the best possible, with the result that new uses destroy the very beauty they are trying to sell. In April, the Council of State canceled all expansions envisaged by the master urban plan of Paros, ten years after its approval … The reason was that the expansion of settlements could not be based either on the needs of the inhabitants or on the demand for holiday homes, but must be considered the carrying capacity of the island.

Thomas Doxiadis, architect and landscape architect, invites us to see the big picture. “There are cultures based on strategy and cultures based on opportunities. We are in the second category,” says Mr. Doxiadis, who recalls that in 2007 they presented to the Ministry of Tourism as an office “a large study that emerged a strategy for diversifying tourist destinations that could balance the “over-villas everywhere” model” . But he doesn’t want to sound pessimistic, even if the national policy takes time to pay off. He considers defining the capacity of tourists starting from the islands (this in turn would automatically constitute an environmental term for medium and large developments), as well as determining the maximum percentage of beaches per island – a municipality that may not be completely free. “At the same time, and perhaps more directly effective, there will be bottom-up interventions, the conscious orientation of local societies towards other tourism models, more alternative and more complex. And there’s a lot to be done here.”

Jason Tsakonas is responsible for the largest concentration of famous architectural names per square meter on a Greek island: Antiparos (26 architects from Greece, Portugal, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark). Over the course of 15 years, his company has built 54 high-quality residences on the island, with an average plot of 20 acres and an average building area of ​​650 square meters. This changed the international profile of Antiparos (many of Mr. Tsakona’s buyers are foreigners), but the island did not become “Mykonos”. The campsite still attracts its clientele, but it is clear that Antiparos has changed course over the last five years. Last year, he opened the Rooster, the first 5-star boutique hotel.

In addition, the airbnb pie is on the rise as well as luxury homes for rent. Jason Tsakonas believes that Antiparos is on the right track, “however, it is essential to have planning and regulations so that we do not enter a phase of over-building and over-tourism,” he emphasizes. The season should definitely be extended, the countryside of Campos should remain rural with limited construction, a certain number of hotel permits should be issued, and the residential character of the island should be preserved, meaning there should not be a large rental housing market without residents. And, of course, there should be incentives to build staff houses that are not allowed to be rented out to airbnb.” This year alone, Oliaros, Mr. Zakon’s company, paid 90,000 euros to rent space for the staff of the organized beach it manages.