Modern architecture in Athens

Modern architecture flourished in Athens during two periods, between 1930–1940 and between 1950–1975. Influenced by the European modern movement led by Le Corbusier and other architects, Greek architects tried to adapt these principles into Greek practice. However, conservatism was often a hindering factor and usually both classically inspired as well as modernist buildings were built during the same periods.

The term πολυκατοικία (polykatoikia, literally "multiresidence") is used in Greek to denote every apartment building. One of the first, if not the first, apartment buildings in Athens was built in 1917–1919 by architect Alexandros Metaxas in an eclectic style for Petros Giannaros on Philellinon and Othonos Streets, adjacently to Syntagma Square. Thanks to the fact that this building was one of the first ones to be built with reinforced concrete, it was unexpectedly, as well as asymmetrically higher than the adjacent ones. This caused a fury and led to two royal decrees, one in 1919 and another one in 1922 that in the end set the height for buildings according to the width of the street they lay on, with a maximum height of 26 metres for wide streets.

The changes that took place in Greek society after the defeat of Greece during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the ensuing population exchange between Greece and Turkey created different housing needs for the population, revealed how important the construction sector could be for the Greek economy, and influenced, as a result, the legal framework of the polykatoikia. In 1929, two important laws concerning apartment buildings took effect. The law about "horizontal property" (οριζόντια ιδιοκτησία) made it possible that many different owners own one apartment building, each by owning one or more apartment units. Theoretically, each apartment corresponds to a percentage of the original plot. The most important effect of this law was the practice of αντιπαροχή (antiparochi, literally "a supply in exchange"). With antiparochi, the owner of a plot, who can't afford to build an apartment building by himself, makes a contract with a construction company so that the latter will build the apartment building but keep the ownership of as many apartments as the contract states. Although during the interwar period the practice of antiparochi was limited, as the construction of most apartment buildings was financed solely by the original owners of the plot, antiparochi became the most common method for financing the construction of apartment buildings from the 1950s onwards.

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