This year marks the 70th anniversary of the earthquake that struck Santorini, causing the loss of dozens of lives and widespread destruction to the island’s settlements and infrastructure. What followed was one of the most significant post-earthquake reconstruction projects ever undertaken in Greece.

For Greece at the time, the project was both ambitious and groundbreaking. Housing for those affected by the earthquake was not treated solely as a technical restoration project, but as a broader intervention encompassing homes, public infrastructure, schools, churches and communal spaces. The reconstruction therefore brought modern architectural thinking into dialogue with local building traditions.

Today, many of the buildings from that period have been altered by extensions and subsequent renovations, whilst the residential complexes have, to a large extent, been absorbed into the island’s subsequent urban development. However, individual buildings and public spaces remain that still show the morphological and compositional characteristics of that period, allowing us to recognise the legacy of this pioneering endeavour.

The exhibition aims to highlight a crucial yet relatively unknown aspect of Santorini’s modern history. It presents archival material and the results of the curators’ academic research into the reconstruction period, shedding light on both the extent of the destruction and the complex process of planning and implementation.

Through period drawings, photographs and archival material, visitors are invited to discover not only the final result, but also the process behind it: the difficulties of reconstruction, the architects’ intentions, the search for a contemporary architectural expression that would engage with the site, and the way in which the new developments were accepted, inhabited and gradually transformed by the residents themselves.