Rethink Crisis : Rehousing Democracy in Athens

Abstract: Almost 40.000 Greeks became homeless the past 8 years due to the economic crisis. But there is still hope! This project reflects on how architecture can lead to a more humane society using democratic methods and a city’s urban strengths. It explores how volunteers, the State and the Private Sector can collaborate through competitions and win-win agreements in order to gradually transform an abandoned commercial center and landmark, MINION, into a qualitative pilot housing project with socialization space for hundreds of homeless people. This could finally lead to the revitalization of the decaying Athenian environment through a number of stages. The project has a dual purpose and the idea is very simple. On one hand the project needs to include stores and other commercial spaces that reflect the old Athenian character in order to attract the interest of the higher financial layers of Greece and invest their capital. On the other hand the State will use this capital in order to provide qualitative housing to people in need. MINION is actually turns from a ‘commercial machine’ that used to be, into a ‘social machine’. All these actions will be completed with the collaboration of the tenants of the building.