“It’s about creating green spaces, lowering the temperatures, giving quality of life and creating new reference points inside the city,” Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said.
The city had a population explosion in the decades after World War Two when migration from rural areas fuelled uncontrolled building.
The concept of ‘antiparochi’ - owners exchanging land plots for apartments - became widespread.
Detached houses were replaced by rows of blocks. With more people came more cars and smog, in a city where temperatures can top 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) during a heatwave.
“Trees were cut down, houses were built, residential areas were created, but at the same time, traffic congestion problems increased,” said Christos Zerefos, head of the Athens Academy Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology.
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