Transforming Athens' Urban Landscapes Symposium

Transforming Athens Urban Landscapes was a two-day symposium held at Technopolis in Athens on 22 and 23 June. The symposium brought together Greek and international experts from the fields of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture, academics, journalists and policy makers. Through presentations, moderated discussions, informal conversations and engagement with the public, they shared their experiences on the current and future transformation of Athens' urban landscape.

During the symposium, pressing issues related to the adaptation to climate change, citizen participation processes, possible models of cooperation between administrative sectors, design practices, and long-term strategies were highlighted, with a focus on the city of Athens. Other cities, such as Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen and especially Munich, served as a field of reference. Key findings and lessons of the symposium will be issued within the next weeks by the Chair of Sustainable Urbanism at the TUM.

The book Taking Action - Transforming Athens Urban Landscapes was also launched during the symposium.

Transforming Athens’ Urban Landscapes Symposium was part of the Inner-Urban Landscapes of Athens programme - a series of research activities and public events that have been organised by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) – Chair of Sustainable Urbanism, in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) since 2021 and was made possible by the generous support of the Schwarz Foundation. The symposium was also supported by the City of Athens.

The Mayor of the City of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, and the Deputy Mayor for Town Planning, Urban & Building Infrastructure, Vasileios-Foivos Axiotis, also joined the discussions to discuss projects for the city and visions for a better urban future.

Thanks to all the participants who contributed to this two-day exchange of ideas and visions (in alphabetical order): Tilemachos Andrianopoulos, Elissavet Bargianni, Aikaterini Diamesi, Michalis Goudis, Eirini Iliopoulou, Panita Karamanea, Norbert Kling, Evangelia Krali, Mark Michaeli, Ivy Nanopoulou, Dimitris Poulios, Tasos Roidis, Katja Strohhäker, Panayotis Tournikiotis, Loukas Triantis.

Special thanks to Regine Keller and Georgeen Theodore for their keynote speeches and to Giorgos Lialios for his participation as moderator.

The symposium was organised by Tasos Roidis, Mark Michaeli and Norbert Kling, TUM, Panayotis Tournikiotis (NTUA) and Panita Karamanea (TU-Crete).

It can be found online here: Day 1 – Day 2.