Balancing Acts Between Ancient and Modern Cities: The Ancient Greek Cities Project of C. A. Doxiadis

Mantha Zarmakoupi

doi:10.5334/ah.cv

Abstract

This paper examines the inception and development of the Ancient Greek Cities (AGC) research project (1963–77) of Constantinos A. Doxiadis and addresses the novelty of its methodological approach to the study of classical urbanism. With the AGC project, Doxiadis launched a comprehensive study of the ancient Greek built environment to provide an overview of the factors involved in its shaping. The project produced 24 published volumes — the first two laying out the historical and methodological parameters of the ensuing 22 monographs with case studies — as well as 12 unpublished manuscripts, and through international conferences initiated a wider dialogue on ancient cities beyond the classical Greek world. It was the first interdisciplinary study that attempted to tackle the environmental factors, together with the social and economic ones, underpinning the creation, development and operation of ancient Greek cities. Doxiadis’s innovative approach to the analysis of the ancient city was indebted to his practice as an architect and town planner and was informed by his theory of Ekistics. His purpose was to identify the urban planning principles of ancient Greek settlements in order to employ them in his projects. This paper examines the concept and methodology of the AGC project as well as the ways in which Doxiadis used the study of ancient cities in relation to his contemporary urban/architectural agendas, and explains this important moment in the historiography of ancient Greek urbanism.

Highlights

This paper examines the inception and development of the Ancient Greek Cities (AGC) research project (1963–77) of Constantinos A
This paper examines the concept and methodology of the AGC project as well as the ways in which Doxiadis used the study of ancient cities in relation to his contemporary urban/architectural agendas, and explains this important moment in the historiography of ancient Greek urbanism
The Greek architect and planner had been a government official between 1937 and 1950, as the coordinator of post-war reconstruction as well as the administrator of the Marshall Plan aid to Greece — a career that was abruptly interrupted in 1950, prompting him to found his private firm of consulting engineers (Doxiadis Associates) in 1953.1 By 1963, his private practice had been engaged in important international development projects beyond Greece: housing projects in Iraq (1955–58), the restructuring of the plan of Homs in Syria (1959) and the planning of the new capital in Pakistan (1960), among others

Summary

Introduction

There were eleven more Symposia, which were held from 1964 to 1975 and undoubtedly contributed to the development of the research project on the Ancient Greek City.18 With the Symposia of Delos, Doxiadis attempted to launch an international interdisciplinary discussion on the current state of human settlements, a condition that is deteriorating rapidly, as noted in the first ‘Declaration of Delos’ (Fig. 7).19

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