Removing Athens’ excess

For decades, urban progress was measured in square meters of asphalt, concrete and paving. Roads, sidewalks, squares and open spaces were sealed beneath impermeable surfaces, as if construction itself proved that a city was being cared for. Now, as cities confront rising temperatures and extreme rainfall, some are doing the opposite: removing asphalt and concrete so the soil can breathe.

The practice is known as depaving or desealing. Its logic is simple: where installed materials are not essential, remove them. The aim is to make the ground permeable again, allowing it to absorb water and sustain trees and low vegetation.

Leuven and Ghent in Belgium are leading the approach with dedicated teams that free the soil for planting. Paris has applied the same philosophy to schoolyards through its appealingly named “oasis courtyards.” Those yards represent roughly 730 acres of public space within the dense French capital, and turning them into small oases can significantly improve urban life.

That example leads the author back to Athens and a very different question: what should be removed there? The list includes broken and filthy telephone booths, abandoned lighting columns cut off halfway, the remains of old traffic cameras, broken benches, Christmas lights wrapped around the city’s few trees, and improvised supports nailed to trunks. It also includes tree stumps turned into restaurant stools, bus stops transformed into giant advertisements, damaged bollards, abandoned kiosks, empty boxes from old networks and ruined ELTA mailboxes.

Athens, the article argues, has a peculiar relationship with new installations. It puts them in place, forgets them once they break and leaves them indefinitely. The author proposes removing what is rotten and illegal, then asks whether those responsible find maintenance economically worthwhile.