Cultural HIDRANT is an urban social innovation project in the city of Halandri, Greece. It regards the revitalization of an ancient aqueduct and hidden natural resource through community participation, aiming to promote environmentally sustainable and socially fair development.
Through a cross-sectoral approach, collaborative and participatory methods –between municipality, specialists, local stakeholders, communities, schools- the Hadrian Aqueduct is re-embedded in everyday life as historical heritage and memory, as water, cultural and urban commons. 24.500m2 are transformed, through participatory planning, into car-free green public spaces. A non-drinkable water network is created, saving annually 25000m3 of expensive energy-costly drinkable water, which along with a local history archive and the community HIDRANT festival constitute novel citizens-managed institutions.
Besides re-emerging as historical landmark, Hadrian Aqueduct becomes a community building facility. It interweaves past, present and future, but also everyday needs with green transition, local identity and sense of belonging with participatory modes of governance, endogenous development with sustainable resource management.
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Revitalizing a Heritage Site Through the Lens of Environmental and Social Justice
Kostas Gerolymatos was born, raised and lives in Halandri with his wife and two children. He is a mining-engineer and has worked as a construction engineer and safety officer in big infrastructure projects.
He has been a member and president of the Board of the Mining Engineers Students’ Association of NTUA and the corresponding graduate association, member of the Construction workers’ union (metro branch), representative of the Parents’ Association of the 4th primary school of Halandri, and president (and of the founders) of the Chalandri Parents’ Cooperative (School). Besides that he has participated in many local citizens’ initiatives and campaigns throughout his political life.
He was elected in the city council first in 2014 and since then he has served from the positions of Deputy-Mayor of the Technical Department (2014 – 2019) and Deputy-Mayor of Programming, Development and Digital Governance, as well as of Waste Management (2019 – today).