The urban polykatoikia is the type of building that transformed Athens into a modern metropolis in the 20th century.

For forty-five years, this model was the undisputed residential ideal of all social classes. The exhibition Athens' Polykatokias 1930-1975. Formation of a Typology approaches the polykatoikia typology as an urban heritage in which ideas and visions for urban life and cohabitation were inscribed and gradually condensed into a final, iconic form.

Photographs and architectural plans trace the innovative evolution of concepts for key polykatoikia features - floor plans, entrances and balconies. The presentation of polykatoikia designs from five decades is a retrospective tribute to the Greek architects who contributed to the formation of this building type, eventually providing the models for the informal polykatoikia mass production of the post-war years.

The exhibition is based on the book Athens' Polykatoikias 1930-1975 by the German architect Kilian Schmitz-Hübsch and the Greek photographer Dimitris Kleanthis, published in 2023.

Kilian Schmitz-Hübsch (born 1968 in Bonn) studied architecture at the Berlin University of the Arts. After working in the offices of Oswald Mathias Ungers and Rave Architekten in Berlin, he founded his own architectural office in Bingen in 2004. From 2008 to 2014 he taught as an assistant to Professor Alban Janson in the Chair of Fundamentals of Architecture at KIT in Karlsruhe. He organised exhibitions on various housing typologies and is co-editor of the architecture book Unerkannte Räume (Berlin: Jovis, 2015) and author of the publication Athens' Polykatoikias 1930-1975 (Dortmund: Kettler, 2023). From 2016 onwards, he was repeatedly appointed to the juries of architecture competitions as a specialist adjudicator. He has been a lecturer in interior design at the Academy for Fashion and Design in Wiesbaden since 2024.

Dimitris Kleanthis (born 1985 in Athens), studied political science at the University of Piraeus, criminology at the Panteion University of Athens and photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. Since 2012 he has been working as a freelance photographer in Athens in the fields of architectural photography and photojournalism. His work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions at various cultural institutions such as Benaki museum, Hellenic American Union and Eleftherios Venizelos Airport and has been published in magazines and media such as Wallpaper*, VICE, Conde Nast Traveller, Kathimerini and Athens Voice among many others. He contributed the photographic part to the publication Athens' Polykatoikias 1930-1975 (Dortmund: Kettler, 2023) and his photos accompanied Marina Warner's latest book Temporale (London: Sylph editions, 2023).