The Serafio Project
At the beginning of 2018, while studying Cultural Management at Panteion University, one of our graduate courses got us thinking about cities. Under the lead of Professor Betty Tsakarestou, who is the project initiator of the Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project we started discussing ways to make our city more sustainable, smart, open and better for the people that inhabit it.
Our team (Karolina A. Mackiewicz, Maximos S. Theo. and Ioanna Kakalidi) was challenged to study cities around the globe in order to understand what it is we as cultural managers can do to create a better future for the city we live in.
We case-studied the Global YouthfulCity Index, we evaluated Athens for its strengths and potential and we got in touch with two initiatives in the city and learned about the ways they re-brand and co-create Athens (Impact Hub, Serafio).
One of the first findings on our way was the “Serafio Complex” project, listing among the latest and most ambitious endeavors of the Municipality of Athens aiming at bringing our city into the era of innovation, entrepreneurship and civic engagement. An old sports center destroyed by a 1999 earthquake was seen as an excellent opportunity to rejuvenate the city’s pulse and redirect its future. With the cooperation and support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the old building and the surrounding area were recently turned into the new sports, culture and innovation center of the city.
One of its most interesting features is the location. Serafio is situated in a rather degraded, crisis-hit part of Athens, which at the same time is very close to the city center and next to two of the most cherished by citizens and visitors cultural meeting points of the city: Technopolis (old Athens Gasworks) and the Benaki Museum at Pireos St. The original idea was to give these neighborhoods, that date back to Antiquity, some of their lost value, increase their inhabitants’ chances to participate in, or rather co-create, their city’s future and create the experience of a livable modern city for them. However, the design and potential of Serafio can easily turn the whole project into a benchmark for every Athenian, wannabe Athenian or visitor.
During a visit to Serafio, hosted by Matina Magou, communication and PR officer of “The Athens Development and Destination Management Agency” (ADDMA), our team had the opportunity to see how the project meets the sporting needs of the citizens, through the use of 2 swimming pools, an indoor gym, basketball and tennis courts, as well as a football field and a breakthrough play space for kids and teens. The complex also houses a number of initiatives designed to improve entrepreneurship and innovation, promote quality of life in the city and engage Athenians in a process of co-creating a smart city.
Among them, the Athens Digital Lab, a smart city research and development incubator and the Maker Space, an innovation and creativity workshop providing access to equipment and knowledge. The facilities also host the “SynAthina” initiative, an online platform where citizens’ groups design and implement solutions that can improve life in the city, the Athens Culture Net, a network of the city’s major cultural institutions, as well as an exhibition space.
In this context, Serafio is currently hosting “Polis2”, an ambitious project designed by the Municipality of Athens and intended to create small- scale interventions in the city with big impact for its citizens and its image. As a tactical urbanism initiative, “Polis2” encourages citizens’ groups, non-profits, entrepreneurs or private institutions to get connected, work together and create solutions to address city challenges. Besides that, the project aims at boosting entrepreneurship while reviving city center neighborhoods, by supporting the reuse of abandoned stores.
All the above efforts to rehabilitate urban space and generate the inhabitants’ involvement in it are certainly worthy but reality often proves them ineffective, unless change makers succeed in overcoming bureaucratic hurdles and disrupting the established no- cooperative culture. This is the biggest challenge that the Serafio initiative has to face. A good way to start would be to sufficiently communicate its existence and purpose, thus gaining the people’s support.
