Refugee Houses of Nea Philadelphia

What I can see

The settlement was built to house refugees from Asia Minor after the Greek-Turkish war. It follows the standards of European garden cities, with ellipsoidal cuts in the street planning and low buildings. The facades of the buildings are symmetrical, as are the openings and balconies. We see a subtle mix of modernism (repetition of patterns), eclecticism (roofs) and folk architecture reminiscent of Smyrna (Izmir) houses. All residences have gardens. The original 579 buildings included 1720 houses of 7 different types: single houses, double houses, four- and eight-house buildings, T-, E- and Π-shaped buildings.

What I can't see

Until 1920, here was the small village of Podoniftis, named after the tributary of Kifissos River. It was designed as a model refugee settlement. Its first inhabitants were the fire victims of Ampelokipi. In the Athens earthquake of 1999, approximately 400 houses collapsed or were demolished, having suffered irreparable damage. Their construction material was mainly stone and for this reason the settlement suffered terrible damage from the two major earthquakes (1981, 1999). The risk of the settlement to collapse, due to earthquakes, and the pressures it was already under from new apartment buildings, lead to its listing as a traditional settlement, so that what remains can be saved.

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