The regeneration of the centre of Athens is inevitably identified as the regeneration of the Historic Triangle: Piraeus-Stadium-Ermou. The metropolitan, supra-local character of the neoclassical triangle of Kleanthis and Schaubert is self-evident and so potent that it cannot be challenged: neither by the economic crisis nor by the aging of its building content. Yet it has indubitably been deprived of its éclat. The intrinsic power of the triangle lies mainly in its relation to the Acropolis through its vertical correlation with Athenas Street, its once almighty bisector -the linear heart of the city. It is this feverish, economic, commercial and symbolic vein that channeled into the tangential to the hill Ermou Street must form with it a powerful T, not just of movements –but also of a renewed, vigorous, complex metropolitan life. During the rejuvenation of the Historical Triangle, regaining the public domain is now essential – and it can only be interlinked as a strategy with its inherent characteristics, the recovery of the innate radiance of this linear T: between Omonoia and the Acropolis, between Syntagma and Kerameikos. The proposal for the regeneration of the Centre of Athens consists in the functional, geometrical, and cultural strengthening of the internal structure of the Historical Triangle, through the creation of three new tension-poles: two at the ends of the hypotenuse Ermou – in Syntagma and Kerameikos – and one in the middle of the bisector Athenas – in the Varvakeios Market. Rectangle, Square, Circle: 3 simple new geometries accompanied by crucial traffic, functional and geometric arrangements attempt -in synergy with the pedestrian grid restructuring- the recovery of public space, the reactivation of the axes Athenas – Ermou, the amplification of the Athenian Triangle’s inner life.

The regeneration of the centre of Athens is inevitably identified as the regeneration of the Historic Triangle: Piraeus-Stadium-Ermou. The metropolitan, supra-local character of the neoclassical triangle of Kleanthis and Schaubert is self-evident and so potent that it cannot be challenged: neither by the economic crisis nor by the aging of its building content. Yet it has indubitably been deprived of its éclat. The intrinsic power of the triangle lies mainly in its relation to the Acropolis through its vertical correlation with Athenas Street, its once almighty bisector -the linear heart of the city. It is this feverish, economic, commercial and symbolic vein that channeled into the tangential to the hill Ermou Street must form with it a powerful T, not just of movements –but also of a renewed, vigorous, complex metropolitan life. During the rejuvenation of the Historical Triangle, regaining the public domain is now essential – and it can only be interlinked as a strategy with its inherent characteristics, the recovery of the innate radiance of this linear T: between Omonoia and the Acropolis, between Syntagma and Kerameikos. The proposal for the regeneration of the Centre of Athens consists in the functional, geometrical, and cultural strengthening of the internal structure of the Historical Triangle, through the creation of three new tension-poles: two at the ends of the hypotenuse Ermou – in Syntagma and Kerameikos – and one in the middle of the bisector Athenas – in the Varvakeios Market. Rectangle, Square, Circle: 3 simple new geometries accompanied by crucial traffic, functional and geometric arrangements attempt -in synergy with the pedestrian grid restructuring- the recovery of public space, the reactivation of the axes Athenas – Ermou, the amplification of the Athenian Triangle’s inner life.