Cultural Hidrant is contributing the conversation about green and just transition in the Athens area, showcasing how city resiliency, strategies of adaptation to climate change, and sustainable development can be approached locally. The second episode of "The voice of Hadrian aqueduct", continues the conversation between policy makers, experts, scientists and city-makers working inside and outside the trajectories of the UIA financed initiative, stimulating a discussion about how water and water services are being reframed at city and metropolitan level, giving birth to an unprecedented reflection about the future of an entire region.
During summer 2021 a new project has started in the Athens area. It foresees the reuse of the entire track of the ancient Hadrian aqueduct, the infrastructure dating back to the Romans that served Athens with water until the beginning of XX century. Based upon some of the prerequisites of Cultural HIDRANT, this new initiative upscales the UIA financed project of Halandri into an Integrated Territorial Investment proposal with strategic importance for the entire Attica region. The conversation about the future of a specific piece of land in the metropolitan area of Athens is becoming a good excuse and a great opportunity to rethink cooperation mechanisms between institutions, organizations and citizens. Implementing such a complex initiative requires bravery and a big capacity of imagination, to replace obsolete interaction models with new ones that are more open and more horizontal, to invent solidarian forms of governance, more capable to actively engage local communities, protagonising them in the process of change.
A special thanks goes to participants to interviews and people that contributed with content, document and information: Katerina Apostolopoulou, communications consultant at EYDAP; Haris Biskos, architect and UIA Expert; Costas Gerolymatos, coordinator of UIA Cultural HIDRANT; Christos Giovanopoulos, Cultural HIDRANT staff; Stefania Gyftopoulou, Cultural HIDRANT staff; Themis Gkion, project manager at EYDAP; Eleni Myrivili, Chief Heat officer for the City of Athens; Iossif Parsalis, CEO at NMA - New metropolitan Attica; Dimitris Poulios, architect and Urban designer consulting the Regional Authority of Attica; Giorgos Sachinis, Director of strategies and innovation at EYDAP; Teodora Tzeferi, archaeologist at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture; Konstantinos Zervas, project manager at NMA - New metropolitan Attica.
