Domusweb book review: The Public Private House
A contribution by George Kafka:
The Public Private House is an intensive and densely architectural book with very few architects. Instead of being the main character of an intriguing and perplexing protagonist that snakes its way through the city of Athens like a Sophoclean tragic hero, is the polykatoikia.
Athens wants to instantly recognize polykatoikies as the defining typology of the city’s urban landscape – more than any acropolis or other feature of the attican built environment.
Translated literally as ‘multiresidence’, the polykatoikia is a multi-storey, mixed-use building characterized by balconies, stepped terraces and white paint on its exterior and a blend of private residences and offices on its interior, both at street level and upwards , As Richard Woditsch, architect and editor of the book explains, “to research the polykatoikia also means to research the modern urban history and development of Greek history in general and Athens in particular.” The Public Private House thus interrogates this particular building type – its specific architectural attributes and case studies – but more importantly its role in the last 100 years of Athens’ urban development.
Kafka, George (2019, 1th march): Book review: The Public Private House – Modern Athens and Its Polykatoikia.URL: https://www.d omusweb.it/en/architecture/gallery/2019/03/01/book-review-the-public-private-house–modern-athens-and-its-polykatoikia.html [11.03.2019].
