Discover the abandoned airport being transformed into Europe's biggest park

It’s not just Athens' ancient classical monuments that lie in ruins: the 20th-century Ellinikon airport, three times the size of Monaco, has been abandoned since the early 2000s. However, a vast planned park is currently transforming it into Europe’s largest urban regeneration project. Alice Barnes-Brown paid a visit

Stepping onto the tarmac is typically the first sensation of being 'abroad': the warm breeze, unfamiliar scenery and whirr of jet engines all stimulate the travel-loving soul. You’ll get that same feeling at Athens’ brand new greenspace, the Experience Park. Built on the site of the former Ellinikon airport, it’s a 170-acre patch of semi-wild greenery, restful reflection spaces and fabulous water features. The site’s plane-filled past is homaged in its design, with crumbling runways and ex-hangars turned into oases of fun. Who says you can’t add picnicking and playgrounds to the airport experience?

Image credit: George Messaritakis

About 30 minutes south of the Acropolis on the metro's speedy red line, the wider 2,000,000 square-metre Ellinikon area doesn’t quite suit its flashy surroundings. The barbed wire-covered complex is adjacent to the sparkling Aegean, the golf clubs of Glyfada and the oh-so-glam Athenian Riviera. It began life as a military airbase for both Greek and American soldiers just after the Second World War, then graduated to civilian use as the hub of Olympic Airways, which whisked Athenians to 87 different destinations. Mid-century, neo-futuristic terminals designed by the prolific Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen would have been filled with packed escalators, baggage trolleys and the bing-bongs of tannoys, but the Ellinikon’s golden age was not to last.

In 2001, a new airport (Eleftherios Venizelos) was built, making the Ellinikon redundant. Flights were redirected, the terminals gutted and the Ellinikon became emblematic of Greece’s dire financial straits. For almost two decades, its only visitors have been lizards, graffiti artists, and even Greek pop singers using its outré setting for music videos.

Image credit: Thomas Doxiadis

New beginnings

Think that’s the end of the Ellinikon’s story? Think again. An innovative greenspace project led by Lambda Development means the entire site will be revamped by 2025, with two-thirds of the land becoming a Central Park-style wonderland called the Metropolitan Park, and the other third given over to high-end retail and sustainable residential developments (including Greece’s first skyscraper). In December 2021, the Experience Park – a mini taster of the planned Metropolitan Park – opened to the public on the Ellinikon’s northeastern edge. So far, its meditation and yoga zones, outdoor gym equipment and oregano-and-olive scented herb gardens have been a hit with local families.

The Experience Park is the brainchild of Harvard-educated Greek landscape architect Thomas Doxiadis and his team, whose guiding philosophy is symbiosis: a mutually beneficial interaction between humanity and nature. I shake his hand at the main entrance, where he introduces this concept; “We don’t live in a period where humanity should erase things – we should respect what is already there”. He points to a stout, camo-painted concrete tower in the corner of the temporary car park. “We wanted to keep the memory of the airport alive, through the buildings and the stuff that you find around. We kept this guard tower; I think they’re quite cute with that green paint on them.”

Following his finger to the road I’ve just come down to meet him, I notice it’s actually an old runway, repainted with striking red, yellow and green lines that pull up to the park’s entrance. “We thought of a simple, cheap, ecological way to take an existing material and make it more fun.”

Image credit: Alice Barnes-Brown

Doxiadis stops in his tracks, scraping a suede boot on the ground to show me where the old runways have been reused. “Everything you see in front of you is the old concrete. It’s been here for 50 years.” Something sparkles a little under his sole. “This one actually has very beautiful, precious marble chippings inside.” Recycled runway concrete has been used creatively as steps, sculpture, and even unconventionally playful benches, which Doxiadis is particularly keen to showcase. "I'll polish these myself if they don't eventually polish them", he notes as he runs his hand along a rough edge.

Image credit: Thomas Doxiadis

A playful purpose

We wander in the direction of the Forest Playground. It’s Sunday afternoon, so it’s filled with gleeful kids running and rolling about, while their parents spoon ice cream in the shade provided by a dense patch of willowy eucalyptus trees. Doxiadis tells me: “Kids and playgrounds are not well-served in Athens. It was clear from the very beginning that building a nice playground is a way to get people here.” And it’s a nice playground indeed – rope bridges and daredevil tightrope crossings connect the climbing frames, and better yet, there’s a fuselage-shaped slide for budding flight geeks.

Image credit: Thomas Doxiadis

But behind the playground’s spongy asphalt is a yellow aircraft hangar, ravaged by time. Hangar A, one of three on the site, is a huge reminder of the sheer scale of work to be done, but presents a unique opportunity. The hangars are listed by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Doxiadis’ team have already devised a smart way of incorporating Hangar C into the Experience Park. You’d barely recognise it: as the Ellinikon’s visitor centre, opened in May 2022, it’s been re-clad, re-painted and re-glassed to perfection.

Image credit: Alice Barnes-Brown

The air-conditioned lobby gives way to a multi-sensory world of artificial cherry blossoms, LED fairy light decorations and uber-modern scale models, showcasing what the rest of the future Ellinikon will look like. It’s very flashy, and if you’re a fan of the interactive exhibits at your local science museum, you’ll love this collection of gadgets. A young woman dressed like cabin crew hands me a cardboard “boarding pass”: a white slate with which to interact with the exhibits.

Image credit: Alice Barnes-Brown

The first involves standing under a projector while a bird’s-eye view of the site is projected onto my boarding card – and, as I rotate, the view changes from the Second World War to 2022. I’m also enthusiastically encouraged to fold up my boarding pass and use it to unlock a stationary VR bike ride, where I cycle through the groves of plane trees (no pun intended), past serene streams and even newly-accessible beaches that make the Metropolitan Park a turning point in Athenian urban planning – a literal breath of fresh air.

Outside, the hundreds of jets that comprise the 'water maze' strike up their hourly dance routine, to a medley of muffled Disney classics. Nearby water babies rush in, but I stay dry as Doxiadis shows me his final ode to the aerodrome: the centreline markings of the runway, discreetly etched into the ground. He gestures at the floor, like an air steward showing where the emergency lights are. “It harkens back to the airport’s geometry, but it’s a subtle game, almost hidden from view. If you go to a place and the second time you go there’s nothing new to offer, you become bored.”

Image credit: doxiadis+

As I watch young and old splash together in the fountain, kids fantasising about pilothood in the playground and young couples strolling through sculpture gardens made from recycled runway, I can’t imagine anyone getting bored. The Ellinikon is ready for takeoff once more.