Golden Room 1

The “Golden Room” series includes digital reproductions of typical Athenian apartment rooms based on photos found in real estate website listings. The selected apartments are priced at 250,000€ which is the minimum investment in real estate required to apply for a European Visa. Since the introduction of the programme in 2013, the Greek “Golden Visa” has become the most affordable route to permanent residency in Europe, compared to 500,000€ in Spain and Portugal and 650,000€ at Malta. New property owners in Greece can apply for citizenship and a passport after seven years. The “Golden Visa” programme has attracted many international real estate companies that have acquired properties in Athens and other tourist locations. Apart from selling properties, these companies are also supporting their clients in the application procedure of what is considered to be a European investment immigration program. Most of the 250,000€ real estate opportunities can be found in typical twentieth century Athenian apartment blocks. Originally built for the local petite-bourgeoisie, these apartments have now become a gateway to European citizenship for wealthy people mostly from China, Russia, and other Asian countries.

Dragonas Christopoulou Architects

Panos Dragonas and Varvara Christopoulou founded their studio in Athens in 2001. Their portfolio includes a wide set of projects ranging from the urban scale, landscape, housing, to exhibition curatorship and design. Panos Dragonas was joint commissioner and curator of “Made in Athens”, the Greek participation at the 2012 Venice Biennale. deltarchi.com