About the Book
This book examines the connection between the politics of the Marshall Plan and urban planning and identifies the key players, such as the Greek architect and urban planner Constantinos A. Doxiadis and the Italian industrialist Adriano Olivetti. It also explores the architects of the Mataroa mission, who played a vital role in the cross-fertilisation between France and Greece, and the role of travel to Greece for architects during the 19th century.
This book delves into the work of Constantinos A. Doxiadis, Adriano Olivetti, Alison and Peter Smithson, Iannis Xenakis, Takis Zenetos, Henri Lefebvre, Cornelius Castoriadis, Aris Konstantinidis, Dimitris Pikionis and others. It sheds light on how Doxiadis introduced “ekistics” as a novel approach to understanding the science of human settlements. This book proposes that the manner in which these aforementioned architects and urban planners addressed the role of technology in everyday life and the relationship between society, history, culture, nature, architecture and urban planning could enrich our ongoing methods and debates on architecture, urban planning, ecology, social equity and democracy.
This book is based on extensive archival research and will be of interest to architects, artists, researchers and students and scholars in architecture, architectural history and theory, art, urban sociology, cultural theory, science and technology studies, philosophy, ecology, cybernetics and aesthetics.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction: Palpating the Paths of Sentimental Topography and Ekistics
Chapter 2. The Greek Travels of the Villa Medici Pensionnaires in the 19th Century: Perceiving Ancient Monuments between Architecture and Archaeology
Chapter 3. Dimitris Pikionis, Aris Konstantinidis, and Albert Camus: Greece’s Entry into Modernity and Mediterranean Humanism
Chapter 4. The Architects of Mataroa, and Cornelius Castoriadis and Henri Lefebvre’s Autogestion: Reinventing Polis as Project
Chapter 5. Takis Zenetos’s Electronic Urbanism: Social Structures and Reconstruction of Mass Society
Chapter 6. Iannis Xenakis’s Formalised Music: Connecting Space, Music, and Mathematics
Chapter 7. Alison and Peter Smithson’s Understanding of the Notion of Space in Greek Architecture: The ‘As Found’ as Topographical Sensitivity
Chapter 8. Constantinos A. Doxiadis and Adriano Olivetti’s Role in Politics: Marshall Plan and Urbanism and Housing in Postwar Era
Chapter 9. From the Ministry of Reconstruction to the Dissemination of Ideas through Networks: Urban Networks, Human Settlements and Ekistics
Chapter 10. Constantinos A. Doxiadis, Adriano Olivetti, and the Settlements of Utopia: Industry and Optimism
Chapter 11. Urban Analytics and Technophile Culture in Constantinos Doxiadis and Adriano Olivetti’s Practices: Towards a Computerised Vision
Chapter 12. Post-script or Towards an Ekistics of Tomorrow: What is the future?
Index
About the Author :
Marianna Charitonidou is senior lecturer and senior researcher at Athens School of Fine Arts, where she leads the project Constantinos A. Doxiadis and Adriano Olivetti’s Post-war Reconstruction Agendas in Greece and Italy. She is the founder and principal of Marianna Charitonidou Think Through Design Studio (https://charitonidou.com). She is a licensed architect engineer, urban planner and historian/theorist of architecture and urban studies. She holds a PhD Degree and an MPhil Degree from the National Technical University of Athens, an MSc Degree from the Architectural Association and a Master’s Degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is the author of many books, among which are Architectural Drawings as Investigating Devices: Architecture’s Changing Scope in the 20th Century (Routledge, 2023) and Drawing and Experiencing Architecture: The Evolving Significance of City's Inhabitants in the 20th Century (2022). She has been teaching at the university level since 2012. She has been lecturer and researcher at ETH Zurich, Princeton University, Columbia University, Getty Research Institute, École française de Rome and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. She has received many awards for her research, teaching, conferences and writings on architecture and urban studies. She curated the exhibition The View from the Car at ETH Zurich.
Review :
Marianna Charitonidou's scholarly work, based on extensive archival research, delves into the modernist reinterpretation of the myth of Greece, especially within the urban crisis context since the Marshall Plan. She explores dialogues between influential European architects and Greece, with a focus on Constantinos A. Doxiadis's theory of ekistics—an interdisciplinary and ecological framework for human settlements that transcends the technocratic approaches of postwar planners and architects. By linking ekistics with contemporary theories of ‘critical regionalism,’ Charitonidou offers a sophisticated critique of today’s digitally influenced techno-aesthetic ecological approaches, revealing significant connections between historical modernist regional perspectives and Helleno-centric ideas.”
Gevork Hartoonian, Emeritus Professor of the History of Architecture, University of Canberra, Australia, recently the author of Mies Contra Le Corbusier: The Frame Inevitable (Routledge 2024), and the editor of Valances of Historiography: Essays on Architectural History (Routledge, 2024).
Marianna Charitonidou's book presents a vital theoretical contribution to architectural and urban history and theory, making it essential for architects and cultural and political theorists alike. It emphasises the interconnectedness of architectural processes with broader cultural, scientific, ethical, and political systems. This significant epistemological hypothesis serves as the foundation of the text. The book is well-structured and contributes meaningfully to architectural and urban history and theory and the humanities. It highlights Constantinos A. Doxiadis’s and Adriano Olivetti’s visions for post-war reconstruction, linking them to innovative approaches in sciences and socio-political theory. Additionally, it examines the impact of the Marshall Plan on urban planning in Greece and Italy and the cultural journey of architects and intellectuals following WWII amid Greece's deterioration.
Constantinos Moraitis, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Landscape, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and recently the author of Aktaionos Weddings: Texts on the Landscape, its Cultural Approach and Design (Tziola, 2024).
This book is a most laudable effort to discuss modern Greek architecture within an international cultural framework.
Alexander Tzonis, Emeritus Professor of Architectural Theory, History and Design Cognition, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands, co-author with Liane Lefaivre of Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2020).
