Marwa Arsanios Revives 1950s Doxiadis Social Housing Plans Through Contemporary Art

In 2013, Marwa Arsanios, an artist, delved into the 1950s social housing designs by architect Constantinos Doxiadis, which were commissioned by the Lebanese government for Athens. The initiative, comprising eighteen types of residences, was ultimately shelved following political changes in 1958. Arsanios brought two of these concepts back to life as models, featuring two-story concrete buildings with wooden details. Her creations link mid-century aspirations to modern concerns regarding housing accessibility and urban development in 2014. This work is part of a larger artistic trend that has been exploring late-modernist housing since the 1990s, with contributions from artists such as Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Pierre Huyghe, reflecting neoliberal living conditions, as seen in Viktor Rosdahl's Elineberg 2020, which relates to Documenta 12's 2007 focus on modernity.