The centrally located eight-building housing complex known as "Prosfygika" in Athens, was built in the 1930s, to accommodate some of the 1.5 million Greeks who were displaced by a 1923 population exchange with Turkey.
Prosfygika's dwellings are a mix of state-owned and private units. Some of these flats are still owned and inhabited by descendants of Greek refugees. The majority of the apartments are owned by the Greek State that has abandoned them and thus nowadays has become a haven for squatters and drug addicts as well as immigrants trying to cross into northern Europe.
The historic housing complex is flat-roofed and boxy, typical of the German Bauhaus school of design, and is considered as an architectural monument. It has been shelled during the Greek civil war in 1944, threatened with demolition and became such an eyesore, that it was covered by a massive sheet during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
On March 11 2014, it was announced that the Prosfygika housing complex, have been passed on to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) to be sold to private investors. This announcement drew conflicting reactions.
Today, (30 March 2014) two architects Dimitris Eftaxiopoulos and Stavros Stavridis have undertaken to lead an architectural and historical tour of Prosfygika and dozens of civilians have responded.
Dimitris Eftaxiopoulos who besides lives in Prosfygika has recovered his flat at this historic housing complex, into a modern residence.
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