An urgent request to the relevant authorities of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Environment and Energy for the recognition of the building of the Hellenic Industrial Society (our famous Diplarios school) as a protected monument was submitted last week by the Greek section. International Council for Industrial Heritage (TICCIH), Council for Architectural Heritage of the Hellenic Society for the Environment and Culture, Monumenta and NTUA Honorary Professor Maros Kardamtsi-Adamis. The mobilization of architects and urban planners is connected with the news that the building, known for its educational purpose and proposed since 1932 in the key district of Athens (Teatro Square, right behind the town hall), will be turned (also) into a hotel room. It should be noted that the plan has already received approval (since last spring and with a narrow majority) from the Architectural Committee of the Attica Region.

Applicants are not objecting to new use, but to the size and intensity of the investment; that is, there are concerns that the fragmentation of the building to create an extremely large number of beds into four self-contained units destroys a single character and dramatically changes the functional layout and its internal image.

Diplarios, which was built on the site of one of the city’s earliest theaters (hence the name of the square), as well as close to the model school Varvakeio on Athena Street, demolished in 1955, has been identified with the history of technical education. in our country and is a product of the educational reform of Eleftherios Venizelos. From the always strong advocate of the recent history of Athenian architecture, Maros Kardamitsi-Adamis, we learn that the building was erected according to the plans of the architect Aristides Iliadis, a graduate of the Ecole d’Architecture in Paris, where he maintained an architectural position until 1925, when he settled in Athens. It is one of the first examples of abstract classicism morphology, with purity of volumes, austere morphology of facades referring to modernism, functionality of the floor plan, large external frames providing sufficient lighting and ventilation in the auditoriums. It is built on seven levels with a total area of ​​about 10,000 sq.m., with a small internal atrium covered with a tiled roof and a small roof, while structurally this is one of the first uses of reinforced concrete in our country.

Architects and urban planners are not objecting to new uses, but to the size and intensity of investment.

It is estimated that over 65,000 masters of many specialties were trained during the school’s operation, who then worked in crafts, in industries and in public administration. In recent years it has operated as a private IEK (but always with free tuition thanks to the bequest of Aristides Diplaris), providing training in three specialties in tourism and information technology. This year will be the first academic year that Diplarios will be out of work due to a change in headquarters (a new location is being sought).

Only tourism?

The Hellenic Section of the International Council of Monuments and Landmarks (ICOMOS) also issued a statement on the matter, arguing that the proposal to reuse the Diplareion School as a hotel is inconsistent with the character of this historic building and violates its unified character: “The large free height and wide dimensions of the halls disappear because they are fragmented,” we read among other things. And he continues: “Stairs of significant morphology are weakened by the installation of elevators in them. Mosaic floors lose their content. Excessive use of space overrides the interior design philosophy of the building.”

In addition to the very important one indicated by the competent authorities, with the transformation of the Diplareion into a hotel, another equally serious problem arises, regarding the rapid deforestation of the city center from important functions, once self-evident for the city center, and which do not necessarily belong to the tourism sector.