Urban voids and infrastructural residues in post-industrial cities. The case of Eleonas in Athens, Greece

Keywords: urban voids, residues, decline, post-industrial, infrastructure, perceptions, planning
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 28

Abstract

The transition from the industrial to the post-industrial city has led, in many cases, to the failure of industrial infrastructure and the abandonment and deterioration of open spaces and buildings. These post-industrial urban environments often result in the creation of ‘urban voids’: large inactive and neglected areas where key spatial, social and environmental factors are ignored. Within neo-liberal and development-led planning contexts, these absences and voids tend to be seen either as profitable opportunities or as failures – a polarising view that this research is challenging.

This study focuses on an ‘urban void’ known as Eleonas in Athens, Greece where the development of extra-local transportation infrastructure was heavily favoured over other networks leading, over time, to extreme dereliction and severe environmental and socio-economic degradation. Using a trans-scalar research framework, it examines the relation between space, infrastructure, flows, and people and explores how decaying infrastructure and space are perceived and used. A richness rarely found in urban cores is unveiled composed of a variety of key urban services but also ‘un(der)productive’ and informal uses, as well as vibrant narratives and imaginaries.

Finally, this paper highlights that ‘urban voids’ are, in fact, vital to the cities they are part of and argues against their over-simplification as ‘backyards for unwanted processes’. It also suggests that there is a transformative function to these spaces – their ‘voidness’ – and concludes on the necessity of a relational planning framework targeting contextual drivers of urban transformation with a particular focus on infrastructure, ongoing activities, and nature.