Revitalizing the Kypseli Neighborhood in Athens

? Destination Stewardship Report – Vol. 3 No. 2 – Fall 2022 ?

Another winner from the Top 100 – Every year, Green Destinations organizes the Top 100 Destination Sustainability Stories competition, which invites submissions from around the world – a vetted collection of stories spotlighting local and regional destinations that are making progress toward sustainable management of tourism and its impacts. From the winners announced this year, we’ve selected two more stories, this time from Zambia and Greece, that showcase different reasons for engaging the local community. Synopsis by Josie Burd.

Top 100 submission by Alexia Panagiotopoulou, Head of Strategy, Athens Development and Destination Management Agency

Revitalizing the Kypseli Neighborhood Began with a Holistic Redo of Its Core Agora 

Amidst the densely packed historic neighborhood of Kypseli stands a building that has gone through lifetimes of change. The Kypseli Agora is one of the last permanent neighborhood markets in Athens, a traditional gathering place for the community. Fondly recalled memories of after-school ice cream visits and weekend shopping for fresh foods with their parents roll off the tongues of elderly residents as they reminisce about how the market felt more like a second home than a place of business.

A group passes through a local park during a walk around the neighborhood. [Photo courtesy of Green Destinations]

This lively atmosphere began to disappear in the 1980s as younger people moved to the suburbs instead of into the homes they would have inherited in Kypseli. The majority of the residents who stayed were elderly. As the neighborhood declined, so too did traffic to the market. The Kypseli residents, the City of Athens, and the public recognized this loss for what it was and considered how they might bring the vibrancy and life back to this community.

These are some of the steps they took to achieve that goal:

  • 200 people engaged in public forums discussing ideas and proposals for the market. Citizens submitted an additional 470 proposals.
  • Private companies, associations, social enterprises, and civil society groups submitted 17 total proposals in an Open Call to select the manager of the market.
  • The City of Athens coordinated 3 months of cooperative activities to promote the Open Call and begin encouraging a collaborative culture for the market.
  • The Kypseli Agora worked with surrounding businesses to provide a place for them to show their work while building relationships together.
  • Lower-rent spaces in the market went to startups and popup shops with a focus in social business that encourage questions about consumption and stimulate the circular economy. The goal was to emphasize inclusivity and create opportunities for vulnerable groups to be recognized for their work.
  • The new market determined that it was important to build regularity and thus developed a schedule. Some events include an organic garden vegetable market on Wednesdays and a brunch showcasing food from neighborhood kitchens once a month on Sundays.

Results

Kypseli Agora achieved a new life in 2018. With social entrepreneurship and sustainable values at its heart, the market became a thriving hotspot for culture and community. Since its revival, quality of life in this neighborhood has increased, drawing an influx of residents, especially writers and artists. The revitalization of the market has also been credited with helping the City of Athens to become the European Capital of Innovation in 2018.

Pop up brunch, Kypseli Municipal Market, part of the Athens City Festival. [Photo courtesy of Green Destinations]

After two years of shutdowns and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the market hosted an all-day lounge and party in May 2022 to help relaunch the neighborhood. The appeal of the Kypseli neighborhood now extends beyond the immediate community and is known throughout Greece and beyond, often featured in international press as a cultural destination. Indeed, Green Destinations and the Future of Tourism Coalition chose Athens and the Kypseli Agora to host their annual conference, held September 26-29 of this year.

Architecture & Placemaking

[The Teshima Art Museum (above) in Naoshima, Japan brought economic prosperity to a small island in decline. Photo from https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/]

Editor for this page: Clara Copiglia

Illustrations of Relationships Between Architecture and Tourism.
This page collects lessons about the impact of architectural projects on place-making, restoration, or recovery. These projects range from small installations to larger strategies that impact the surrounding territory – territory is defined here as the context of the project, its environment, community, culture, and economy.

We invite you to help expand its content.

Larger themes – depopulation, nature appeal, indigenous communities, ruins care, and overtourism  – frame the various case studies below. An example illustrates each category. You can find an extensive collection of such examples here.

Depopulation
Architecture can become a tool against depopulation. Renovations or new construction projects can revive rural or urban destinations in decline when they integrate the local community, landscape, and an understanding of local history.

Rural Example – Naoshima Island, Japan

Photo from https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/

Naoshima, a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, experienced drastic population loss in the 1960s. At the same time, a wealthy businessman was looking for a home for his art collection. He hired Tadao Ando, a world-famous architect, to build a museum on Naoshima. Today, Naoshima Island is a major art destination, where visitors cruise on electric bikes and local life has return. The island now has multiple new museums and art installations. Renovated traditional buildings house a bathhouse, restaurants, accommodations, and art. But Naoshima was only the beginning of the Seto sea island’s transformation. Other Islands, such as Teshima and Inujima, followed Naoshima’s path.

Urban Example MassMoca, United States

Photo from massmoca.org

Once a thriving manufacturing town with an increasing population, the mill town of North Adams, Massachusetts, faced financial trouble in 1984 with the shutdown of local companies. Thomas Krens, the director of Williams College Museum of Art (who later became Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), was looking for a space to exhibit large contemporary art pieces. North Adam’s mayor proposed an empty factory in the town, and in 1999, the world’s largest contemporary art museum was born. Today, North Adams revolves around art, and MassMoca (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) brought economic prosperity and tourism.

Nature Appeal
Architectural projects can invite visitors to step into nature by creating new attractions. The project can create a new path in nature or sit along an existing path, reviving it.

Example Festival des Cabanes, France

Photo from www.lefestivaldescabanes.com

The Festival des Cabanes – Small Pavilions Festival– is an annual architecture event near Annecy, France. Every year, architecture students and young architects participate in a competition to construct 12 wooden pavilions spread out in the area south of Lake Annecy. Each pavilion stays from Spring to Autumn and is dismantled at the end of the exhibition. The festival invites visitors to this natural region instead of limiting tourism to the popular lakeshore. Equipped with a map, the visitors walk in nature to reach the pavilions constructed by the competition’s participants. This festival gives a unique opportunity for young architects and brings tourists to rural areas.

Indigenous Communities
Some projects can create a meeting place between indigenous communities and visitors, where tourists can learn about local traditions and history. The indigenous community should set the intentions of the project.

Example Krakani Lumi, Australia

Photo from www.taylorandhinds.com.au

Krakani Lumi – Place of Rest – is a series of pavilions on a guided walk in Tasmania. The palawa community owns the land and operates the 4-day/3-night journey called the ‘wukalina walk’. The architects collaborated with the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania to create unique campsites where visitors can rest and learn about traditions. The tectonic and materiality of the project pay homage to the First Tasmanians and their land. The exterior of the pavilions is made of charred Tasmanian timber to blend with their surroundings. The architects had the buildings prefabricated off-site to minimize impact on the land.

Ruins Care
Due to financial and political constraints, many ruins are difficult to maintain and renovate. Adaptive reuse projects or participatory tourism provide sustainable strategies to care for ruins.

Example Canova Association, Italy

Photo from www.canovacanova.com

The Canova Association is a nonprofit founded in 2022. Its goal is to bring awareness to stone architecture in Nava, Italy. In collaboration with the municipality, the association facilitates acquiring and restoring the small medieval village’s stone buildings. The non-profit organizes guided tours for tourists to discover the village, events for its members, and workshops dedicated to architectural restoration.

Overtourism Mitigation
Overtourism is the opposite of sustainable tourism. Various policies help resist this scourge, and architectural or territorial interventions can also be part of the solution by creating alternative paths and attractions.

Example Alternative Moray, Peru

Photo from nanotourism.aaschool.ac.uk  This photo shows one of the small installations on the alternative path. The students traced circles to materialize a place for storytelling about the site, narrated by local inhabitants.

The AA Nanotourism Visiting School is a teaching program developed by the Architectural Association, School of Architecture, London, UK. Each year, they organize workshops with architecture students and young architects about sustainable tourism. In 2019, the workshop took place in Moray, one of Peru’s most popular Inca sites. The students collected the community’s history and proposed an alternative path for visiting Moray. Small installations invite visitors to get away from the touristic route to learn about the local community and participate in activities.