Born in the year 1913, C.A.Doxiadis (Constantinos Apostolos Doxiadis) is the noteworthy Greek architect and urban planner, who is best known as the originator or Father of Ekistics--the Science of Human Settlements.
His parents were Apostolos Doxiadis and Evanthia Mezeviri. A doctor by profession, his father held the privilege of being Minister of Refugees, Social Welfare and Public Health; and distinguished himself by organizing numerous welfare services for children--putting to good use his expertise as a pediatrician.
Constantinos (sometimes spelled as Konstantinos) obtained his degree in architectural engineering (in 1935) from the Technical University of Athens and his doctorate from the Berlin-Charlottenburg University, one year later.
He began his (almost one and a half decade) government service in 1937, as Chief Town Planning Officer for the Greater Athens area. During the war (1940-1945) he was the Head of the Department of Regional and Town Planning in the Ministry of Public Works, and adjunct corporal in the Greek army. After WWII, he was designated as Deputy Minister and Director General of the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction. Later in 1945-1948, he had the honor of being Minister-Coordinator of the Greek Recovery Program and (in 1948-1951) Undersecretary of the Ministry of Coordination.
In 1951, he founded his private consulting firm--Doxiadis Associates. From a small group of professionals, the company grew into a conglomerate that had a presence in forty countries and five continents. It undertook several prestigious worldwide engagements in: Ghana, Greece, India, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, South Vietnam, Spain, Sudan, Syria, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The group provided consulting services to the United Nations and private organizations in many foreign countries.
He was a mentor in a number of respected universities: the Technical University of Athens, the Athens Center of Ekistics, and at the Universities of Chicago, Dublin, Harvard, Michigan, New York, Oxford, Princeton, Yale, Massachusetts and Georgia Institute of Technology, Swathmore and Trinity Colleges.
He was the author of several articles and many books where he shared his personal insights on architecture and planning. His style of writing is distinctive because he often drew inspiration not only from the past and the present, but likewise often gave his "predictions" on what the future would be like. Among his books are: "Architecture in Transition," "Anthropopolis: City of Human Development," and "Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements."
His most remarkable thesis is that urbanization and modernization are part of a long-term process which will finally culminate in a world-wide city--which he called an Ecumenopolis.
Despite his affliction with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Doxiadis worked and wrote until his last days. He died at the ripe age of 62, on 28 June 1975.
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