“Architecture In Greece” At The Public Tobacco Factory

It all started when Panagiotis Pangalos, an ingenious and resourceful architect and professor at the University of West Attica (UNIWA), met with Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Nikitas Kaklamanis. He told him about his long-term goal of creating a Greek Museum of Architecture and his wish to organize an exhibition on architecture in Greece, together with architects and National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) professors emeriti Dimitris Philippides and Manolis Korres. He asked that the Hellenic Parliament’s Public Tobacco Factory in Athens be made available to them.

The request was accepted, and preparations for the exhibition began immediately (Fig. 2). Its main title is “Architecture in Greece,” with the poetic subtitle “The Mystical Language of Shape,” taken from the essay “The Problem of Form” (1946) by Dimitris Pikionis, the leading Greek architect, thinker, and academic. The exhibition, held with the generous support of the Hellenic Parliament, is dedicated to architectural creation in Greece, from prehistory and antiquity to the modern era.

The team was joined by Stavros Alifragkis, associate professor at UNIWA, who is editing the catalog of exhibition material and theoretical texts by distinguished scholars together with Panagiotis Pangalos. All four took on the difficult task of selecting representative works of architecture designed and built across Greece, in different eras and under different conditions, while avoiding a chronological presentation.

As Dimitris Philippides notes: “This exhibition was an incredible experience. Four of us set out to do something that each of us understood in a completely different way. It took a lot of discussion and effort to move forward on what the goal was and how each of us imagined it. But we found ways to work together and the compromises needed to complete the project. The exhibition took a turn toward being ‘all-inclusive,’ meaning we cover everything from the kiosk to the Acropolis!”

A rare work chosen by Manolis Korres, who believes it “condenses the four parts of architecture: buildings, the architects who create them, drawings and processes, theory, and the research that follows,” is the Arsenal of Piraeus, designed by the architect Philo of Eleusis. It is a representative example of the exhibition’s content.

According to Panagiotis Pangalos: “This relatively unknown work of architecture is a building that no longer exists. It was drawn based on a description of 1,001 words carved on a marble slab from 347 BC, found in Zea harbor in 1882. The clear and detailed description allowed for a highly accurate drawn reconstruction of the building, its interior divisions, and its architectural details.

“It is not a building of power or worship, but a military storehouse for warship equipment. It is a purely functional building that has nothing to do with the symbolism of religion or power, yet it still conveys perfection. The perfection of ancient architecture that is not offered to a deity or to someone powerful. At the same time, it reveals that architecture is not something you perceive only through sight and specialized drawing tools such as the elevation, the floor plan, or the axonometric. It is also something that can be conveyed through words, showing that the relationship between architecture and language is extremely important.”

THE EXHIBITION. Architectural drawings and sketches, models, photographs, works of art, historical documents, books and magazines, film excerpts, recordings, and audiovisual material from major public and private archives are presented in spaces covering nearly 4,000 square meters, forming a coherent narrative of the history and art of architecture in Greece.

The goal is for it to serve not only as a major cultural event, but also as the starting point for a broader discussion about architecture’s place in contemporary Greek society, the preservation of architectural heritage, and how we plan the future of our country. It also aims to contribute meaningfully to the public and institutional dialogue on creating a Greek Museum of Architecture as a permanent body for research, documentation, preservation, education, and international promotion of architectural work in Greece.

“This exhibition is an effort by people who truly love architecture, and I hope the result will satisfy its visitors,” says Manolis Korres. It is aimed at both experts and the general public and will run from October 17, 2026, to January 17, 2027, with parallel events. The official opening will take place on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.