The subject of the present lecture is the sociological dimension of certain Athenian blocks of flats. The interest is focused on the nutshell of the said blocks as frames of lives of their residents, rather than on the buildings morphological and architectural elements.
The research was centered in three paradigms of such blocks, all of which are representative of the Athenian structured space and are designed by anonymous architects. The research was realized through the use of three successive approaches. The first approach concerns all the blocks, the design of each of them was printed, whilst its inhabitants were interviewed. Through the said approach it was attempted to investigate the effect of the "produced qualities" in both the intra-communication and the lives of the residents.
Through this approach it was aimed to realize the contradictory results of the collective way of life, the intense need to (despite the neighbors presence) reinforce the residents privacy within their flats, as well as the facts) indicating the way and the degree of the inhabitants customization of the blocks spaces.
The next approach, whilst taking into consideration the observations made on the first, was focused in a single apartment of each block. In each such apartment there was photographical imprintment of specific material objects and spaces. The photographs were later studied so as to realize the characteristic elements of the internal space of each flat, in addition to the relation between the residents and their material object. This second approach sought to determine the relation between the individual personality of each inhabitant and the special character of his flat.
In the third approach, while still using the chosen flats, the research turned to the blocks as whole entities through the examination of their informal communication networks. To this extent it was attempted to record the information of senses (hearing, smell, vision) arising from all the residents, so as to create a realistic experience of residing in the chosen flats, whilst relating the communication networks with the inhabitants degree of privacy.
All the three approaches focused on observations of everyday life in the said apartments, such as the places where furniture’s were situated, as well as sounds (speeches, voices, sounds of music and television) and smells produced (by food, bubble-baths and perfumes), small and big scale of objects (furniture’s, decorative, books, waste). All these observations, though not actually given any conscious thought to by residents, were appraised in order to produce conclusions of their way of life and everyday routine.