integration of natural environment in vernacular architecture

In Greek vernacular architecture, in general, one can distinguish the use and integration of natural elements (topography, climate, orientation, vegetation etc.), within the structure of buildings and settlements. This method could ensure maximum comfort conditions regarding lighting, ventilation, heating and cooling, thermal insulation. Utilization of natural elements emerged as a solution to respective needs, given the lack of current technology tools, whilst revealing deep knowledge of the limitations and possibilities of the natural environment – which is a result of the long partnership of local communities with nature.

As a result, functionally and aesthetically proficient settlements emerged, fully integrated into the local natural environment. So far, traditional architecture is a valuable source of knowledge and reference for modern bioclimatic construction.

a. building typology

orientation. Vernacular buildings tend to have a SE orientation, to utilize the sun. Thus, it remains cool in the summer and in winter, when the sun is low, is heat up.
Often, the position of individual building volumes is such as to create shady spots, sun-protected during summer period.

walls. Stone walls are 60-80 cm thick, a fact which ensures a proper insulation of the building (mild temperature variations). Utilizing the heat capacity of the exterior walls is a very common practice. In some cases the walls are as thick as 1 m (when the building is 4 or 5 floors high or for defensive purposes). The stone walls are usually constructed without mortars (xerolithia-dry stone), constructed in such way so as to ensure the interior’s protection from wind and rain. The inner walls (and sometimes the outer ones on higher floors) are built with wooden slats coated with plaster made of lime and gypsum (tsatmas). This construction method ensures the building’s flexibility and makes it resistant to earthquakes. In some cases the inner part of external walls is coated with wood, a fact which, along with wooden floors and ceilings, contributes to the rapid heating of interior space. (dark wooden boards are sometimes used for a greater absorption of solar radiation.

roof. Either sloping roofs (mountainous, lowland and coastal areas) or flat terraces (coastal and island areas) are used. Roof slopes are smooth ending, in their lowest part, to an overhang with a significant width (70-140 cm), which offers protection against rain and sun. Thus, windows are shaded while shutters remain open, allowing for proper lighting and ventilation of the interior. Furthermore, the overhang protects the exterior walls from rain (avoid moisture) and if two opposite eaves are close to each other the road can be also protected from rain and intense summer solar radiation. Roofs are used for the collection of rainwater (from the roof, to the gutters and then to the cisterns, where it is stored).

openings. Small windows are placed in the northern part of buildings to ensure proper lighting and ventilation, as well as thermal insulation (reduction of thermal losses). The main facade as well as the biggest openings is usually facing the south.

space order. Winter and summer spaces are created to better address climate conditions. Summer places are usually placed on the floors with an outer wall made of wood and lime-gypsum plaster (tsatmas), varying in different locations. Large openings are placed on these walls for ventilation reasons, especially in the summer. Furthermore, in the northern part of the buildings secondary spaces are placed, such as storage rooms and kitchens, as well as an extra room or a small yard for summer accommodation. On the contrary, most main spaces are commonly found at the southern, or in some cases at the SE or SW part of the building.
Usually in rural houses the warehouse or premises is located towards the north aiming at the creation of a buffer area in contact with the main residential spaces, which were thus protected against cold.

structural elements. On the façade shelters, terraces, trellises (often vine covered) and pergolas are commonly used to protect external walls from overheating. Overhanging volumes (sachnisi) with large openings provide proper natural lighting and ventilation. Sheltered semi-outdoor spaces (chagiati), galleries and small arcades create cool pleasant areas during summer months and provide a sheltered space with sufficient light during winter.

vegetation. In the surrounding areas of buildings, trees are planted at appropriate locations, protecting from summer heat with their leaves. During winter they lose their leaves, thus allowing sunrays to heat up the building. (deciduous trees). Locally, scarcity of water resulted in poor natural vegetation. However, certain types of trees were commonly used even from the ancient times. Grapevines, fig trees, olive trees, almond trees, lemon trees, pepper trees, cedar trees, cypresses, juniperus phoenicea, mulberry trees and, the last decades, bougainvilleas are often found. It is important to note that most of them had multiple uses – timber for building, nutritional purposes, shading and cooling, oil, wine and vinegar production.

materials. Structural materials in traditional Greek architecture are those found at the construction environment, resulting in full integration of buildings in the landscape. Stone and wood are the basic building materials, varying in type and usage, depending on local conditions. In mountain areas stone is mainly used both for the outer walls and roof (tile-like stone). Wood is more common in locations where it is plentiful (mountainous and forest areas) and it is used for inner walls, roofs, overhangs, floors, opening frames, stairs etc. Lime, straw (used as binder), bricks (sun baked), limestone, iron and steel in small quantities (mostly rails), gypsum, glass, sand, reed, algae (insulator), clay (in islands). Volcanic rocks are used in respective locations (Santorini, Nisyros etc). White color used in certain island settlements contributes in reducing the heat absorbed by the outer surface of the walls. Material search in the direct natural environment is enforced by the inability to transport them from elsewhere, thus production cost is minimized and energy usage is significantly reduced (material transportation).

b.spatial structure

The way traditional settlements are organized follows some basic rules. Building layout, roads and footpaths follow the natural terrain slope. This way buildings and lines fit smoothly into the natural landscape and optimal use of space is obtained.
Settlements are usually found in locations with southern orientation, for maximum sunlight to be obtained. In the warmer areas, buildings are denser so that air blowing through narrow streets cools down the environment. Furthermore, structural elements, such as pergolas, trellises, shelters etc, are interwoven and create individual spaces with comfortable micro-climate conditions throughout the settlements.
Buildings layout is such that allows the unrestricted natural lighting and ventilation of every building. In areas with strong terrain slope, space arrangement ensures unobstructed view for almost each building. Settlements layout also takes into account the balanced space distribution of water resources to ensure best service of all the individual neighborhoods. Public functions are gathered in one or more central points to maximize accessibility and serviceability.

climate of greece

Greece is situated in the most southeastern part of Europe, confined to the areas between the 34 and 42 parallel N., with a meridional extent from 19 to 28 E. and bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea and the East Mediterranean Sea.
The climate in Greece is typical of the Mediterranean climate, which is mild and rainy winters, relatively warm and dry summers with, generally, long sunshine duration almost all the year. A great variety of climate subtypes, always in the Mediterranean climate frame, are encountered in several regions of Greece. This is due to the influence of topography (great mountain chains along the central part and other mountainous bodies) on the air coming from the moisture sources of the central Mediterranean Sea.
Thus from the dry climate of Attiki (the great area of capital, Athens) and generally of East Greece, change over to the wet one of North and West Greece.
In terms of climatology, the year can be broadly divided mainly into two seasons. The cold and rainy period lasting from the mid of October until the end of March, and the warm and non -rain season lasting from April until September.
During the first period the coldest months are January and February, with, on average, mean minimum temperature ranging between 5 -10 degrees of Celsius near the coasts and 0 - 5 over mainland areas, with lower values (generally below freezing) over the northern part of the country.
Rainfall in Greece even in the winter, does not last a lot of days and the sky does not remain cloudy for several consecutive days, as it happens in other regions of the world. Winter bad weather days are often interrupted, during January and the first fortnight of February, with sunny days, well known as ‘Alkion days’ in ancient times.
The winter is milder in islands of Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea than in the North and East Greece.
During the warm and non-rain period the weather is almost stable, the sky is clear, the sun is bright and generally does not rain. However there are scarce intervals with rapid rain or thunderstorms of small duration mainly in mainland areas.
The warmest period is the last ten-day period of July and the first one of August, when the mean maximum temperature lies in the range of 29.0 and 35.0 degrees of Celsius. During the warm period the high temperatures are dampened from the fresh sea breezes in the coastal areas of the country and from the north winds blowing mainly in Aegean, well known as ‘Etesian’.

 

source: hellenic national meteorological service

detention centers

Pagani, Lesvos island

The number of irregular migrants and asylum seekers detained last year on Greece's Lesvos Island after crossing from Turkey more than doubled from 6,147 in 2007 to 13,252, including thousands of children.
The increasing number of arrivals is putting an enormous strain on this facility, which is located at Pagani near the Lesvos capital of Mytilini. The centre has a capacity to hold 280 people; when a UNHCR team visited in late November, there were 990. A separate open facility for unaccompanied minors can hold 96 children.
Men, women and children are kept in detention on Lesvos for weeks and, in some, cases, months as the bureaucracy struggles to process them.
Aside from severe overcrowding, non-governmental organizations and other critics say the human rights of the detainees in Pagani are being violated. The authorities say they do not have enough manpower to both supervise an outdoor activity period and guard the inmates. Critics also say there are insufficient hygiene and sanitation facilities, with around 150 people having to share a bath and a lavatory. As a result the risk of epidemics and disease is very high. Moreover, there is only one doctor on call to deal with emergencies.
UNHCR has repeatedly called on the Greek authorities to close Pagani and open new facilities that meet minimum international standards for detention centers. The authorities acknowledge there is a problem.
Pagani was adequate two years ago, but it is clearly insufficient with the dramatic increase of arrivals, according to the island's authorities.
The prefect said he was looking at possible mid-term solutions – including moving people to temporary accommodation – to address the conditions in Pagani, which sparked demonstrations, hunger strikes and suicide threats by detainees last June. Shortly afterwards, the island authorities announced the creation of the special centre for minors in the picturesque village of Agiasos.

The establishment of the open facility some 35 kilometres north of Mytilini is a positive development – those 13,252 people detained last year on Lesvos included 3,649 minors, many of whom were unaccompanied.

The children are allowed to stay as long as they need – when UNHCR visited late last year, a handful had been there for four months. Many have relatives in resettlement countries such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK; a lawyer at the centre is exploring ways to reunite them with their kin.

But the problem of irregular mixed migration flows into Greece is unlikely to ease up in 2009, which means that the government must upgrade its facilities to handle this extra caseload. The situation in Pagani, moreover, is replicated in many other parts of Greece.

identity

Most irregular immigrants don't come in large migration waves, but they cross the border in small groups in different locations (either on foot or by boat through Turkey). There are two main routes into Greece from Turkey, one across the Turkish-Greek land border in the northeast of the country, in the Evros region. The other route lies via the Mediterranean, refugees and undocumented migrants attempt to reach the islands in the North-East Aegean sea situated only a few kilometers away from the Turkish mainland. Particularly those of Chios, Samos and Lesvos are important points of entry to the EU through the sea.

While many of those arriving on Greece's shores are economic migrants, a significant number are people in need of international protection after fleeing conflict or persecution in their home countries. Very few apply for asylum at their point of arrival. They don't apply here for many reasons. They either want to go to Athens or to other EU countries. Many wish to avoid the Greek asylum system because, if later picked up elsewhere in the EU, they could be sent back to Greece for their asylum application to be processed.

All those stopped on the borders are detained and given a deportation order (regardless of whether or not they are in need of protection), but this is rarely enforced. Those who apply for asylum on entry points, such as Evros, Lesvos, Samos etc., spend longer in detention, but everyone is eventually moved to Athens, where 95 percent of asylum applications are lodged.

numbers

In 2006, it can be generally stated that the EU Member States and Schengen associated countries noted a decreasing trend of illegal entries at their external EU / Schengen borders. Contrary to this general decreasing trend, detections and apprehensions have increased at the Spanish external borders and in Greece, mainly at the Turkish land border, as reported.
Schengen Member States reported a significant scale of detections within the internal Schengen borders as a consequence of inland migration and general police control measures (e.g. Germany, Austria, France, and the Netherlands). The main nationalities detected at the eastern external land borders in 2006 were Ukrainians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbians, Albanians, Moldovans and Indians.
The main border sections in regards to detection, apprehension and refusal of entry of illegal migrants are: the land border between Slovakia and Ukraine, between Slovenia and Croatia, between Greece and Albania as well as between Greece and Turkey. The Austrian external Schengen borders; the Spanish towns of Ceuta and Melilla; the Canary Islands; Sicily and the island of Lampedusa; the United Kingdom air and sea borders; the Greek - Turkish sea border is also a site of significant illegal immigration.

In 2007, the general picture is not as clear; Spain, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia continued to report declining numbers while France, Greece, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic reported an increase.

The largest detection figures were reported by Greece, Italy, Spain and France, that is altogether 80 per cent of the overall number of detections. Taken into account that Romanian and Bulgarian nationals have not been included in the statistics on migration as from 2007, the overall situation shows a status quo or a slight upward trend. Especially the pressure at the air and land borders seems to be on the increase.
The general situation at the sea border improved and the number of detected illegal migrants declined. Detections at the sea borders of Spain decreased by 70 per cent compared to 2006. Italy reported almost 22,000 detections and an upward trend of 13 per cent. Also Greece reported higher numbers; with sharp increase of 170 per cent, it had some 9,300 detected illegal border crossings. The situation at the southern maritime borders remains a source of serious concern.

In 2007, the main areas in Europe identified as highly affected by illegal migration according to the number of detections and apprehensions of illegal migrants were:

• Land borders in South-Eastern Europe, especially the Greek-Albanian and the Greek-Turkish borders;
• Air borders in North and West Europe, especially in France;
• Sea borders in South and South-Eastern Europe, especially the Greek-Turkish sea border and the Italian coast.

Reportedly, Albanian nationals detected crossing the EU external border illegally most often. The detections mainly took place at the external land border of Greece with Albania. Iraqi nationals were on the second place and detected at all external borders of Greece and at the air borders of various Member States. Moroccan illegal migrants, who were usually detected at the sea borders, but also at the land border between Spain and Morocco, were the third most detected nationals.
The nationals of Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria, Eritrea and Somalia were detected at the sea borders, while illegal migrants from Palestine, Pakistan and Serbia mainly at the land borders. Chinese nationals were mainly detected at the air borders, followed by Brazilians. In total 130,000 Third Country nationals were refused entry to the EU in 2007.

Member States reported more than 260,000 detections of illegal stay. Italy reported the highest number with more than 50,000 detections. Most Member States reported illegal stay inland only and not at exit checks. Most detected illegal migrants were from the neighboring countries, North Africa, long-term conflict areas, or from the most populated countries in the world. Member States reported almost 150,000 asylum claims in 2007. Sweden had with almost 35,000 applications the most of these claims, followed by Greece and the UK (both almost 20,000). Belgium and Poland both reported more than 10,000 claims, while the rest of the Member States reported less than 10,000 claims. Most asylum claims were filed by Iraqi nationals (35,000) followed by nationals from the Russian Federation.

In 2008, some 175,0004 detections of illegal border crossing at the external sea and land borders of the EU were reported by the Member States. This represents a 20% increase compared to 2007. Most of the increase was due to higher detections in Italy and Greece. Although slightly higher at sea borders, the detections of illegal border crossing split almost equally between the sea and land borders. However, while at sea borders the number of detections went up sharply (around 69 %), land border detections decreased slightly. As in 2007, detections at the Greek sea and land borders with Turkey and the land border with Albania accounted for almost 50 % of the EU total.
In Greece, detections at the sea border along the Turkish coast also doubled between 2007 and 2008 to 29,100 illegal border crossings. Detections were mostly reported at six islands close to the Turkish coast: Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Patmos, Leros, and Kos. 

 

The land border section between Greece and Albania recorded the largest share of illegal border crossings with 38,600 detections, but compared to 2007, detections went down by 10 %. It should be noted that most illegal migrants detected at this border section, mainly Albanian nationals, are quickly returned to Albania under a long-standing and effective readmission agreement. However, despite this good collaboration, people who have been returned tend to rapidly cross illegally the border again. Altogether 14,500 illegal border crossings detected have been reported from the Greek–Turkish land border. Unlike at the Greek–Albanian land border, illegal migrants are neither returned quickly nor in large number. Compared to 2007, detections of illegal border crossing have decreased by 14% at this border section. Combined (sea and land borders) joint operation Poseidon 2008 was concentrated on that area.

Detections of illegal stay offer some indication on final destinations and secondary movement of illegal migrants in the EU. Compared to 2007, Member States’ data suggests that the number of persons detected staying illegally in the EU has increased by about 15 %. Ninety percent of the detections for illegal stay were reported in just eight Member States. At the top, France (81,200) and Spain (77,000) represented 40 % of all detections, and recorded the largest increase between 2007 and 2008. A second group of Member States comprising Italy and Greece reported slightly less than 50,000 detections each. A third group, Portugal, the UK, Belgium and Sweden, reported illegal stay ranging between 20,000 and 30,000. Other Member States reported less than 10,000 detections each.

EU policy

The present asylum policy of the European Union gives the clear impression that its core objective is the protection of Europe from refugees rather than the protection of refugees. (frontex)
EU regulations, stating as a general rule that asylum seekers have to apply for asylum in the first EU member state they enter, create inhumane conditions for refugees and clearly illustrate a denial of solidarity with EU member states at the outer borders of Europe, such as Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain

The countries in the centre of Europe protect themselves more and more effectively against refugees. The latter who manage to arrive in another EU country via Greece are being returned to Greece. The consequences of this policy are evident: While the EU countries which only have internal borders shirk responsibility for a humane refugee policy, the EU member states at the outer borders of Europe increasingly behave in a brutal manner. This leads to a double transfer of responsibility from the inner areas of the EU to the outer borders and from there to unsafe countries outside the EU.

a video from the interior of Pagani detention center in the island of Lesvos
http://lesvos09.antira.info/2009/08/voices-from-the-inside-of-pagani-detention-centre/