TSAROUCHIS ON PIKIONIS

[DIMITRIS PIKIONIS 1887 - 1968, Bastas-Plessas Publications; Athens 1994.]


The outstanding thing about Pikionis was that in an age in which building has replaced architecture he resisted; his desire was to show architecture as an art, and he felt no shame in doing so, unlike his contemporaries, who believed that it was more respectable to be a constructor of buildings.

An ordinary meeting with him or a walk along any street at all was a fruitful conversation about things of great aesthetic truth which took man very far away, to the place of urgent encounter where the ancient became modern and the modern acquired a metaphysical significance.

One evening in Syntagma Square he explained to me how beautiful the neo-Classical houses were at night, with their minimal lighting, and he compared old plaster to human skin. In the half-light, the old houses took on the significance of great painting and architecture together. And architects ought to realise, he said, that architecture involves lighting as well; lighting should not be added later, as a makeshift afterthought for the benefit of the police.

Another time, he said of a neo-Classical house at the Angelopoulou bus stop that it contained elements of the buildings, which Claude Lorrain painted in his wonderful waterside scenes.

We can also see these elements in some of the facades of the Louvre, but Pikionis particularly appreciated the contribution made by the humble copyist who simplified them. He was very interested in the neo-Classicism, which was developed in Greece after the departure of the Bavarians by local craftsmen, and he showed me some of the paths, which led to modern Greek neo-Classicism, such as the single-storey house type with three windows and an inner courtyard.

We often talked of the 'greening' of Athens, and he used to say that nothing was ever done exactly us it should. He was incensed by the little cypress trees which compete with the columns of the Classical buildings. Cypress trees are fine for domed buildings, and they make the landscape more attractive because they lack straight vertical lines. Nor was he fond of the little laurel bushes on the steps of the Temple of Hephaestus, in the gaps between the columns. The horizontal lines of the temple steps ought to have been left alone to complement the vertical columns. That is why the temple looks like a denture with half its teeth missing.

We often went together to see one of the buildings he had designed, so as to see what colour they were going to paint the wooden door and window frames and other details about the painting. The 'can't be done' of Greek building contractors and engineers was the largest obstacle to putting his vision into practice. We had to be as careful as water-colourists, and we had to make the most of the findings of matter, which give architecture its style.

All the others designed houses with the anti aesthetic orderliness of office work; Pikionis on the other hand, knew that there are other details leading to the architecture, which follows an almost painterly vision. The agents of the imported schools used to make fun of this painterly way in which Pikionis approached architecture, and they used to say he had a box of water-colours to retouch the church close to the Acropolis. That wasn't true. He was clever about the harmonious development of architecture in the landscape. He never built concrete umbrellas for cafes, which simply broil the customers rather than cooling them. Even in the wares of a cafe Pikionis would try to find something connected with his architecture - this is what gave his architectural works their atmosphere.

One day the waiter asked him if he would like a chocolate pastry, Pikionis gave a bitter laugh, and said, "What, isn't there any pink Turkish delight?"
I watched him designing the surface of the road up to Philopappuss Hill, using patterns, which the landscape had inspired in him. He knew how to paint in architecture and he never produced anything hollowly picturesque, out of respect for the freedom, which doubled the architectural meaning. One has to give Karamanlis his due for commissioning the project for the landscaping of the Acropolis area from Pikionis. He talked boldly to Karamanlis and the other officials when they interfered with his work, and he fought against the fake respectability, which marred their criticisms. What was important was not so much his plans, which were good, as his courage in implementing them and handing the confrontation with the politicians. That reminded me of something Le Carburiser once said: "I am designing Versailles with modern media."

We should never forget that architecture is an art That was a great revolution in Greece, at a time when everyone else was producing architecture from behind a desk, without knowing what would happen if their plans were put into effect. Pikionis was a paradigm of moral courage; he fought against the allegedly practical spirit of those who, on the pretext of economy, did away with architectural thought in the projects they implemented.

Apart from the forms, which he created, his example was one of the kinds of courage without which nothing can be achieved. He cared little for the opinions of experts, but he had the courage to support his own aesthetics in the realm of art. The Greek 'experts' strive to impoverish the vision of all great architects by raising the economic factor as an obstacle. Pikionis was so close to the essence of. architecture that although he loved and understood neo-Classical architecture he did not see it as an example for the present day. Faithful to the spirit of his age, he had a greater understanding of the Lion Gate at Mycenae and of any other primitive form of architecture.

Lots of young people saw him as a painter: that was only to be expected, when he appeared on the scene at least fifty years before his ideas had reached maturity. He was the teacher of all those who wanted to do something authentic. But he was also the silly schoolboy who didn't understand and kept on rudely lighting up a cigarette when the teacher was talking. Many of his ideas established themselves and some good things were done, but Pikionis never issued recipes.

He tried to make the Greeks free, to make them contemptuous of their stupid duties. His drawings and paintings show the stature of the man who lived in our midst.
He often exaggerated, but then the errors of the people in his profession were exaggerated, too.