Greece is undergoing a significant urban transformation as major regeneration projects reshape the architectural landscape across Athens, Thessaloniki, and Piraeus. The centerpiece of this development wave is the ambitious Ellinikon Master Plan, which is converting the former Athens International Airport site into what will become Europe's largest coastal park and a comprehensive mixed-use district.
The Ellinikon project represents the most extensive urban regeneration initiative currently underway in Greece, transforming a 1,500-acre former airport site into a new coastal district featuring residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, cultural venues, and expansive green spaces. The development emphasizes connectivity, climate-responsive design strategies, and the integration of public spaces within new urban districts, reflecting broader shifts in how Greek cities approach long-term planning and coastal redevelopment.
Several high-profile architectural projects are taking shape within the Ellinikon development. BIG's Park Rise Residences introduces 88 residential units in a curved concave form generated from five cores of varying heights, featuring an off-white, glass-reinforced concrete façade with fluted and smooth textures. The building offers residents amenities including fitness facilities, a 20-meter indoor pool, and private gardens connected to the adjacent Metropolitan Park, with a shaded pavilion incorporating photovoltaic panels for on-site energy production.
Foster + Partners has designed Marina Tower, planned as Greece's tallest building at 200 meters, positioned along the Ellinikon coastline. The residential tower features dual-aspect apartments with generous natural ventilation and landscaped platforms integrating water elements and greenery. Composed of two slender volumes linked by multiple terraces that reference the Greek coastal landscape, the project is presented as the country's first green high-rise and will be one of six tall structures within the master plan.
The crown jewel of the Ellinikon development is Sasaki's Metropolitan Park, which will transform 600 acres into Europe's largest coastal park. The design combines organic topographies with linear elements referencing the former airport runways and Olympic venues, while preserving the 1960s Eero Saarinen terminal as a central event space. More than 30,000 trees from 86 species will contribute to a new biodiversity corridor, supported by reclaimed-water irrigation and stormwater strategies that repurpose existing Olympic infrastructure.
Beyond Ellinikon, significant civic and cultural projects are emerging across Greece. In Thessaloniki, Populous is designing PAOK FC's new stadium as part of a broader masterplan to revitalize the Toumba district. The proposal integrates green corridors, public plazas, and an underground rerouting of Kleanthous Street to create a more connected and pedestrian-oriented environment. The stadium's design draws inspiration from the club's emblematic eagle, expressed through a dynamic exterior form.
PILA's new academic building for Anatolia College in Thessaloniki forms part of the institution's long-term campus master plan, supporting the expansion of tertiary-level programs. The porous, landscape-integrated structure introduces outdoor learning areas, open-air gathering spaces, and an amphitheater that strengthens connections between the campus and its natural setting. Flexible teaching spaces include adaptable amphitheaters, a media center, and classrooms designed for optimal daylight and acoustics.
In Piraeus, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop is developing KYKLOS, a new cultural center commissioned by the Dinos and Lia Martinos Foundation. Working with Betaplan Architects and landscape architect Camille Muller, the project combines glazed gallery spaces with extensive Mediterranean gardens, dedicating more than half of the site to planted areas that mediate between the building and the city.
New workplace developments are also transforming Greece's commercial architecture landscape. Foster + Partners' The Grid in Athens represents a new office complex under construction in Marousi, spanning an entire city block within one of Athens' key business districts. The scheme organizes modular building volumes around a central courtyard, creating a social hub connected to landscaped green areas and an adjacent public park.
Georges Batzios Architects have proposed a nature-integrated office building in Athens that reconceives the workplace as an adaptable environment. Inspired by Cedric Price's Fun Palace, the design employs a scaffold-like structural framework supporting continuous spatial reconfiguration, prioritizing collaboration and user-driven change over fixed hierarchies.
Foster + Partners has also unveiled a masterplan for the former FIX brewery in Thessaloniki, outlining the transformation of the western seafront site into a mixed-use district combining housing, hospitality, cultural facilities, and public space. The proposal retains key industrial structures as anchors within the plan while adapting the brewery's heritage fabric to shape new pedestrian routes, squares, and program clusters.
These architectural developments indicate a continued effort to integrate environmental strategies, adaptable programs, and expanded public-realm connections within Greece's evolving urban fabric. The projects reflect updated planning priorities and a growing interest in integrating social, environmental, and infrastructural objectives within contemporary design approaches across the country's major cities.
