We love this article from Huck Weekly about regeneration of Athens city.

Despite the fact that “it stinks, the creative industries have collapsed, media outlets have closed and funding for the arts has disappeared… an ecosystem built on hustling and hook-ups is starting to emerge”.

Greece has stiffed its youth with a failed economy and a crumbling capital. “But beneath the surface, in unassuming pockets scattered across the city, a grassroots movement is giving Athens a new lease of life”. A “laboratory of creativity” aka a DIY Paradise.

There’s spontaneity on the streets. Energy and chaos that young people are thriving off and challenging. Taking crisis as opportunity, the lack of law as a chance to set up ‘bike shop’ street art / street party communities, design playgrounds, ‘an app that lets you experience a city by getting lost in it‘; small artisan workshops e.g an Options Food Lab pop-up catering project run by refugee chefs– that encourage experimentation, bolster the fabric of the city, redraw it’s possibilities and “make the city’s strongest values explicit: roots, openness, inspiration and diversity”.

“During a crisis, people still need to eat, drink and move – but even more important is some form of escapism”.

Read the full Huck article here.

Further reading: 

Last month we hosted our first KERB Talks panel discussion and our panellists touched on a lot of these topics above. Diversity, ‘tactical urbanism’, street food as regeneration (vs. gentrification) and more. WATCH IT HERE.