The refugees
Τα προσφυγικά της Νίκαιας [ta prosfigika tis Nikεas] = The refugees’ quarters in
Nikea
Athens is a city “famous” for its architectural and urban chaos rather than its architectural
heritage . Apart from the few surviving buildings from the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman
periods, as well as some famous Byzantine churches and monasteries, neoclassical
buildings recently renovated and modern apartment buildings of the 1930s, mostly in the
city centre, Athens suffocates from the tall cement, marble and glass structures. With the
exceptions of the leafy northern suburbs, residential areas are dull and colourless, full of
uniform and rather ugly block of flats which flooded all neighbourhoods, mainly during the
period 1950-1980, through the auspices of private sector using the system of antiparochi.
Yet, in some neighbourhoods one can still see low houses, with tiled roofs and walls
painted in pastel shades of blue, deep ochres, greens and pink, with balconies full of pots
of geranium and basil and small gardens with jasmine and honeysuckle. This kind of
houses, the number of which has been dramatically decreasing lately, are principally found
in the areas of Nea Ionia, Nikea and Kessariani, suburbs established to house the Greek
refugees from Asia Minor in the early 1920, and are called the refugees’ (quarters).
Nowadays, Nikea, which was originally founded as an area of refugee settlement in 18th
June 1923, is a big municipality lying three kilometres north of the harbour of Piraeus and
eight kilometres south-west of Athens. The refugee settlements are totally integrated in
the physical fabric of the city and can be distinguished only where the original housing
remains. A close study of the original housing, however, reveals that there are five
different types of houses in Nikea:
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Two-storeyed blocks of houses forming square buildings around a common patio. These
architectural structures differentiate Nikea from the rest refugee settlements. The oblong
two-storeyed living quarters with the external, crosswise staircases are original and unique
in Athens.
Two-storeyed houses providing accommodation for two families per floor.
Single-storeyed buildings providing accommodation for several families. A room and a
kitchen are available to each of those families while the lavatory is common.
Prefabricated single-storeyed houses made from panel board under pitched tiled roofs.
These houses (prefabs) contain two separate houses mirror image of one another.
Inexpensive provisional constructions on plots of lands allocated by the government to
refugee families.
The common feature of all these types of houses is that they were and still are, if not
forlorn, well kept and colourful dwellings. Contrary to the public space which was
miserable, gloomy and hostile, private space was neat hospitable and nice, full of flowers.
In addition, only a few houses belonged to a single family. Most of them had been
subdivided between several families, often completely unrelated to each other.
Renée Hirschon, who studied one type of these dwellings (the prefabs) from a number of
different angles, claims that the ‘house’ became the focus of the refugees’ adjustment to
their new environment and the centre of their social and symbolic world. She also argues
that the arrangement of their private space provides interesting information on a number
of issues relating to refugee identity, marriage and dowry, roles of men and women, the
patterns of relationships between kin and affines etc.
The prefabs, as it has already been mentioned, were single-storeyed structures containing
two separate houses with two main rooms and a small kitchen each. However, it is rare to
find a prefab in its original form. In almost all of them there are additions and extensions.
The custom of providing daughters with dowry on marriage has been the reason for all
these additions and it was fortunate that the prefabs facilitated the rearrangement of living
space. Once a daughter got married, the parents excavated under the house in order to
provide additional rooms. The general pattern was the following: the ground-floor
residence, with the necessary courtyard additions, was given to the married daughters,
while the parents’ quarters were always in the basement. Once married the daughters
created their own nuclear families which did not make part of an extended or joint family.
The co-resident independent families did not share the same kitchen. Each nuclear family
had its own separate cooking area. Very often, a prefab was painted in different colours.
The use of various colours indicated the presence of different households and defines the
territory of each of them.
Closing this brief article, it’s worth talking about one more thing: the role of the “chair” as
an object that bridged the exterior and the interior, the public and the private space. Those
who lived or visited Nikea even during the early ’80s remember very well “the afternoon on
chairs”. Women used to come out with a chair and a piece of embroidery and sit on the
sidewalk facing their own doors until joined by neighbours of friends. More chairs were
brought out and the company grew. There was always a spare chair for the passersby who
would stop to chat and invited to join the group. Neighbourhoods became vivid places
where social exchange took place whereas the barriers between the interior and the
exterior seemed to loosen with the help of the “chair”, this piece of furniture of the inside
which was brought outside. Nowadays only very old women and new immigrants or
refugees, tenants of refugees’ quarters spend their afternoon on chairs.
The magic words have just been written: new immigrants or refugees. Since the early ’90s
Nikea has witnessed a new migration wave. It has become the host city for a large number
of newcomers. Albanians, Greek remigrants from the former republics of the USSR,
Pakistanis and Iraqis have been settled in the city and in most of the cases rented the
refugee dwellings.
Notes
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More information about architecture in Athens at the site www.culture2000.tee.gr
The singular financing method of giving up one's property to contractors in exchange for
one or more apartments in the building is called antiparochi system
More information about Greek refugees from Asia Minor at the
sitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_refugees
The former name of Nikea was Kokkinia. In bibliography it is often referred as Kokkinia
Renée Hirschon has been Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Oxford Polytechnic as well as
Professor of Anthropology at the University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece
Bibliography
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Hirchon R. (1979), 'Essential Objects and the Sacred: Interior and Exterior Space in an
Urban Greek Locality', in Ardener S (eds) Women and Space: Ground Rules and Social
Maps, London, Groom Helm London & Oxford University Women’s Studies Committee, pp.
72-88.
Hirchon R. (1989) Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe: The social Life of Asia Minor Refugees In
Piraeus, Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Dimos Nikaias (2002) Ta Prosfygika Spitia tis Nikaias, Athens, A.A. Livanis.
Editor(s): Maria Potiropoulou
Latest revision: 6. March 2008 16:41