The name is absent

105

and history from its current owner(s) were unsuccessful, nor was the mayor’s office very
forthcoming with information about the plot¹'². I resorted instead to interviews with
neighbors, archival research, and to what might be considered architectural archaeology.
Eventually I discovered that the property belonged to a local wealthy family named
Prapopoulou and that the house was likely built between 1915 and 1930 at a time when
Halandri consisted mainly of farm fields. The architecture of the structure tells us
something further. During this period, prominent Athens-area architects like Vasileios
Kouremenos and Emmanouil Lazaridis were introducing rationalist style to Classicism
resulting in a kind of “archaizing modernism” (Condaratos & Wang 1999:22-24). Note
this was not modem architecture but rather a modernization, or updating, of the classical
design language achieved through its simplification or generalization and stylization; a
trend that had become popular among the Athenian bourgeoisie. Accordingly, the
ornaments that adorn the building, and indeed the general structure itself, were designed
to exude geometrical clarity and firm proportions. However, perhaps with the intention to
soften the building’s appearance or to add a further sense of refinement, the architect who
designed the Prapopoulou estate added elements of French Art Deco to the ironwork that
form the balconies and the gates that surround the property. At the time of its
construction, the building would have presented an update to a familiar Greek aesthetic
achieved through a progressive design language itself touched by artistic modes en vogue
throughout Europe and in Greece: it would have been a vision of cutting-edge Greek
architectural grandeur at the periphery. During this period, and up to around the 1960s,
wealthy Athenian families often built summer homes in the Halandri region. It was also

¹¹² In fact, the staff at the mayor’s office was very polite but reluctant to give me any information about the
property when I approached them.

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