Athens Grounds

The ‘Athens Grounds’ project focuses on refugee integration as an opportunity for revitalizing neighborhoods. With the increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflicts and seeking sanctuary in urban areas, there’s a great opportunity for host communities to better benefit from the assets that refugees bring to their cities. The project is aiming to turn the under-utilized spatial potential of a neighborhood into economic and social incubators within the existing urban fabric. To showcase the potential of this approach, an area in Athens called the Karameikos-Metaxourgeio district, was chosen as a site.

A neighborhood that is facing the same challenges as many other neighborhoods in European cities: a decrease in population numbers and consequently, a lack of human and financial resources.

The project proposes a new prefabricated housing typology by maximizing the common and small private spaces, which again create a communal way of life, facilitating interaction.