Agra Publications will present the new book by ALEXANDROS PAPAGEORGIOU-VENETAS

FOOTINGS
WALKING THROUGH THE CITY

on Wednesday 5 November 2025
at 19.00
in the Concert Hall

of Michelis Foundation
(Ave. Vasilissis Sofias 79, ground floor)

ALEXANDROS PAPAGEORGIOU-VENETAS will be in conversation with:

VASILIS KARAPOSTOLIS
Professor of Culture and Communication (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and author

THODORIS GKONIS

director and author

About the Book

CONTROL OF THE STEP, our pedestrian movement through the city. The subject of study is walking, the silent dialogue between the body and urban space, accompanied by contemplative games of the mind. A prerequisite for the investigation is the recognition of the various motives that call for walking, as well as the conditions under which it is practiced.

The initial challenge for examining the subject was the charming practice of flanerie, which has preoccupied many researchers.
However, the issue of walking proved to be complex and significantly broader. The scope of the research was wide, and it was necessary to draw on the views of experienced thinkers in order to examine this human activity.

Ultimately, a unique synthesis was attempted: a sufficient number of passages from Greek and international literature were included in the text, resulting in a polyphonic whole (Robert Walser, Walter Benjamin, Georg Simmel, Goethe, Ernst Junger, E. A. Poe, A. Empeirikos, M. Mitsakis, E. Roidis, etc.).

The boldness of this writing: the direct intertwining of the loan passages with the author’s words. The text is interspersed with various reflections by thinkers, while comments and explanations are avoided.

The author’s personal accounts of his walks through the city enrich the study with vivid experiences.

The title of the essay, “Footings,” is ambiguous: it refers to physical movement but also to the mental orientation of the walker.

About the author

ALEXANDROS PAPAGEORGIOU-VENETAS is an architect, urban planner, and historian of urban planning. He was born in Athens in 1933. He graduated from the National Technical University of Athens in 1956. He received further training in urban planning in Paris. He received his doctorate in engineering from the Charlottenburg Polytechnic in Berlin (1972). Professor of urban planning history at the Raymond Lemaire Postgraduate Center at the University of Louvain (1975-1985).

Visiting professor at the Technical Universities of Stuttgart (1981-1982), Munich (1996-1997) and Heidelberg (2003-2004). Corresponding member of the German Academy of Urban and Regional Planning. Member of the Council of Europe’s Council for Historic Landscapes and Cities (1974-1977). Expert for UNESCO and the HABITAT Centre for the conservation of historic cities.

He has carried out important urban planning and spatial studies for Chios (1968), the island complex of Mykonos, Delos, and Rhenia (1973-1974), and the old town of Chania (1978). He is a specialist researcher in the protection and regeneration of historic cities.

He enjoys international recognition as a scholar of the urban history of modern Athens. He is an honorary doctor of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens (1998). He has been awarded the Silver Medal of the Academy of Athens for his entire scientific work.

Author of forty monographs in Greek, French, English, and German, and more than 120 articles focusing on the history of urban planning and the protection of the human and natural environment.

His books are published by Agra Publications The City as Entelechy. The experiential experience of Athens in the poetry of Andreas Embeirikos (2023), The words of the master builder: A critical reading of the writings of Dimitris Pikionis (2023).