Taking the long way, we pass the Olympic stadium built in 2004 and join the Kifisias Avenue, arriving at the Athenian suburb of Filothei: in mid-August, a shaded oasis after the relentless heat of the main road. A timber gateway marks the entrance to a playground designed by the Greek architect Dimitris Pikionis (1887-1968) and completed in 1965. A pavilion - somewhere between a Mondrian painting and a Japanese tea house - overlooks a wooden yurt. Stones fan outwards from the gate, configuring the ground in wondrous ways. A marble water fountain has an air of spoliation, its low reliefs suggesting Byzantium. A great span of time is evoked by the architectural ensemble, retrospectively grouping Greek-speaking cultures from late antiquity to the early modern period.
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