Functional Status of the Greek Urban Tissue

Abstract

The paper will focus on the way the land uses legislation has until today shaped the Greek cities functional character. It is divided in two parts. In the first part, the historical frame that shaped the Greek cities functional status is examined in an effort to realize the parameters that have influenced the functional character of the Greek cities. The period that will be examined starts in 1831 when the first decree for the development of the remains of the war gave every Greek citizen the right to own a certain piece of land where he could construct his house, with some restrictions. Through time the effort of the state was to control cities through restrictions, aiming to their development based on hygiene rules as rapid population increase was noticed. The paper will examine the basic legislative rules that have tried to control land uses until today and it will focus on their effect in the Greek urban web. In the second part the research will evaluate the effectiveness of today’s land uses legislative framework, using two case studies. The first area that will be examined is the metropolitan basin of Athens, the area that concentrates the country’s population and employment majority. The second case study is Athenians municipality the core that today is the central area of the basin, the initial core that has been constantly functioning since the creation of the Greek state. The methodology that will be used includes three steps. In the initial step it will focus on the kinds and posts of land uses before the application of the plan that defined the desired land uses structure and allocation. That will be realized with the use of Principal Components Analysis on the recorded employment in urban functions and the investigation of its allocation. In the second step it will examine the intentions of planning and the result it aims to induce. Finally in the third step the same procedure with the first step will take place, but with the use of records that were selected ten years later, in order to reveal the kinds and posts of land uses after planning. The evaluation will result from the compare of the aims of planning and the shaped status after the legislative plan’s application. This will show if planning was effective and the examined areas have been developed as they were planned or if finally other parameters have deteriorated the initial plan and finally city is shaped under the influence of other stronger incentives.