The atmosphere of the streets of Athens would be nothing without one of the distinctive features of Greek architecture and culture: the periptera. These famous kiosks on street corners are the pillars of Greek life and society. For a long time, they were, and for some still are, places where ‘you can buy everything’: cigarettes, drinks, magazines and, in some cases, second-hand books.
Paradoxically, on their own scale, they are also architectural works with their own identity. These heterogeneous heaps reveal themselves in their details and reflect all the identities that make up the rich mixed social and cultural history of contemporary Greece. They are also the material traces of the presence of the inhabitants who make up the city, in counterpoint to the neo-classical ruins or the Epinal image that crystallises around the Acropolis.