[UN]FINISHED - Atlas of Athens’ Incomplete Buildings - A Story of Hidden Anti-monuments

Join us for the book launch of [UN]FINISHED

The architectural archetype of the unfinished concrete building can be found everywhere in the Athenian cityscape. Those structures, left in the middle of a discontinued building process in a seemingly never-ending pause, are signs of invisible financial and political structures defining the physical appearance of the city. With its character of a ruin of a forgotten purpose the unfinished building is at the same time pointing to the past and to the future, as a frozen moment of time preserved ever since its volume reached that concrete state.

With this work in the form of a book, Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot present the phenomenon of a particular pending architecture. It deals with the politics of urban space by treating the unfinished buildings as study objects and tracing their individual histories. Moving in scale from a tactile portrait of one specific concrete structure to a complete building index, the Atlas introduces a method for extracting forgotten memories and hidden structures, suggesting an alternative reading of the city. The concrete skeleton of polykatoikia – multi-storey apartment buildings – are emblematic of the development of modern Greece throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Through the words of current owners and by means of photographs, archival documents and found artefacts, a different chronicle of the development of modern Athens takes shape. An anthropological and politically charged history unfolded on 288 pages, with essays by Brooke Holmes, Platon Issaias and Elpida Karaba, and graphic design by Sam de Groot, published by Jap Sam Books.

Maria Lalou is a conceptual sculptor and experimental filmmaker and candidate for Doctorate of Philosophy at University of Westminster, London. Her work focuses on the political of the viewer, in the form of installations, performances, filmic documents and publications.

Skafte Aymo-Boot is an architect with an independent design and research practice. He has realised a variety of permanent and temporary works in Europe and Asia, many of which are the result of collaborations with artists. He is also a partner at the architectural office OP – Open Platform in Copenhagen.

Platon Issaias is Head of Projective Cities MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design programme at the AA, where he is also teaching as unit Master of Diploma Unit 7. He has written and lectured extensively about Greek urbanisation and the politics of urban development in the Global South.

We are delighted to welcome the authors and guests to the AA Bookshop to celebrate the launch of this new publication over refreshments.

The book will be sold at the special Launch price of £24 (RRP £26)