Athens Nos

The present report is an evaluation study of the project proposal “Belvederes of Athens”. Fundamental goal of this study is to give a thorough analysis on the benefits of the proposal at a municipal level as well as to unfold a strategy for the financial feasibility and the implementation of the project.
The study is organized in two parts. The first part focuses on the analysis of the present situation of Athens at a metropolitan and municipal scale according to structural indicators which are defined by Eurostat and which have been developed to measure progress towards the objectives of Lisbon strategy and the European Union guidelines. Structural indicators track the progress made towards four basic objectives:
• Investing in knowledge and innovation.
• Unlocking the business potential.
• Investing in people and modernizing labor markets.
• Climate change and energy.
We group these indicators into 3 basic categories which cover the entire spectrum of the EU guidelines. Economy, entrepreneurship and innovation draws the current image of Athens in this period of fiscal crisis focusing on data relative to productive economy, investments and tourism. Employment and social cohesion records the social impact of crisis during the last 4 years and highlights the urgent need for specific interventions in the center of the city. The last chapter, environment and infrastructure, outlines the environmental performance of Athens analyzing factors and indicators relative to air quality, green spaces, waste infrastructure and transportation.
The first part is followed by a diagrammatic synopsis of the strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O) and threats (T) as defined by the analysis of the current situation. The diagrammatic synopsis is called SWOT analysis and represents the reference framework for the evaluation of the proposal.
The second part aims to assess the project proposal in terms of the three categories defined by the SWOT analysis but also to propose suplementary interventions around Panepistimiou Street which will perform as regenerators at a municipal and metropolitan level. We “strategize” these supplementary projects so as the overall proposal enhances the economic, social and environmental performance of the city. At the very end, we consider “Belvederes of Athens” not as a mere landscape project which improves the image and the status of Athens. It is rather an overall masterplan approach which considers the problems of the city in total and influences its restructuring within this era of crisis. For that reason we believe that the realization of the project overall becomes highly important. We thus dedicate the final chapter of this analysis to present a feasibility plan for “Belvederes of Athens” and strategies for sustainable financing.