ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the satisfaction of practical needs in the creation of modern Athens. That demand was overshadowed in research by another one: according to the neo-classicists who undertook its reconstruction, the monumental buildings of the Greek capital should be closely related to the antiquities. Each one of the above demands led to different choices, none of them being the decisive one. The urban evolution of Athens had to conform to the most practical factor of all: the availability of land, which overturned all planning. This chapter presents the demand for functionalism and its impact on the Greek capital’s evolution.
