Buildings designed in a new style
Fifty buildings designed by Greek architects post-1990 have been gathered together in «Contemporary Architecture in Greece,» a publication by Architecture in Greece publishers. The book is not newly published, yet is still one of the few publications on the subject of Greek architecture. According to the architect and publisher Orestis Doumanis – author of the book’s introduction – the past 15 years have witnessed the emergence of new architecture in Greece. Influences from late modernism and minimalism are typical of the new style and so is a turn away from the language of regionalism and international architecture, both of which have pervaded Greek architecture for many decades. The book includes works by architects who are considered to have introduced this new style to the Greek urban landscape. Most of the projects presented have been published before in specialized periodicals but are presented here together for the first time. The book includes private dwellings but also several public buildings, among them the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, which was designed by Kyriakos Krokos, and the exhibition center at the Hellenic Cosmos cultural center (which forms part of the Foundation of the Hellenic World), designed by the Anamorphosis architecture team. Interestingly, the architects behind the projects belong to different generations, with Nikos Valsamakis being the oldest among them. Despite their age differences, all the architects are considered to work within a similar architectural mode. An essay by architect Panos Dragonas analyzes this broad-ranging style and examines how various developments (changes in education, society, politics and the public sector) have had an effect on the emergence of this new stylistic idiom. Informative and visually varied, the book is a reflection of the freshest tendencies in Greek architecture.
