Anonymous architecture: A Presence Denied

Anonymous architecture: A Presence Denied

Dimitris Filippidis
Athens 2019, 248 pages, 286 illustrations, 62 figures
ISBN 978-960-244-206-7
€ 32,00

The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation has published the book Ανώνυμη αρχιτεκτονική. Μια άρρητη παρουσία [Anonymous Architecture: A Presence Denied] by Mr. Dimitris Filippidis, Professor Emeritus at the National Technical University of Athens, an edition that comes to enrich the Foundation's contribution to the literature in the field of Architecture.

The subject matter of this book is the anonymous architecture in the urban fabric and the built environment of rural or semi-urban communities. The author completed the work after having conducted fieldwork, recording and research of "anonymous" Greek architectural cases or complexes for many years, as well as having photographed or sketched them.

The initial, brief yet quite comprehensive timeline of the bibliography introduces the concept and semiotics of anonymous architecture in comparison and dialogue with the institutional/signed architecture. It also sets out the historical framework and traces the turning points in time, history and ideology for the transition from traditional and "folk" architecture to the anonymous one, also defining the study patterns. The presentation of typical anonymous buildings sheds light on a society marked by poverty, with an ethical economy of materials and means. Finally, since the 1920s, the prevalence of concrete marks the transition to mass architecture and the contemporary anonymous architectural environment.

This is a groundbreaking approach to anonymous constructions, as they were dictated by the needs of everyday life and developed in a dialogue with signed architecture.