Biography of Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis

Constantinos A. Doxiadis, the son of Apostolos and Evanthia (Mezeviri) Doxiadis, was born in
1913. His father, a pediatrician, was Minister of Refugees, Social Welfare and Public Health and
organized many welfare services, especially for children. He graduated as Architect-Engineer
from the Athens Technical University in 1935 and obtained his doctorate at Charlottenburg
University, Berlin, one year later.

In 1937 he was appointed Chief Town Planning Officer for the Greater Athens Area and during
the war (1940-1945) held the post of Head of the Department of Regional and Town Planning in
the Ministry of Public Works while also serving as a corporal in the Greek Army. During the
Occupation he was Chief of the National Resistance Group, Hephaestus, and published a
magazine called "Regional Planning, Town Planning and Ekistics," the only underground
technical publication anywhere in occupied territories. At the time of Greece's liberation in 1945
he left the army with the rank of captain, and went to the San Francisco Peace Conference as a
member of the Greek delegation. In 1945 he also served as Greece's representative to England,
France and the United States on the problems of postwar reconstruction.
From 1945 to 1951 Doxiadis was one of the prime leaders in restoring Greece to a normal
peacetime existence, first as Undersecretary and Director-General of the Ministry of Housing
and Reconstruction (1945-48), and subsequently as Minister-Coordinator of the Greek Recovery
Program and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Coordination (1948-51). During these years he
was also head of the Greek Delegation at the UN International Conference on Housing, Planning
and Reconstruction (1947) and head of the Greek Delegation at the Greco-Italian War
Reparations Conference (1949-50).

In 1953 he founded Doxiadis Associates, a private firm of consulting engineers, with a small
group of architects and planners, many of whom had worked with him on the Greek Recovery
Program. The company grew rapidly until it had offices on five continents and projects in 40
countries, acquiring its legal form as DA International Co., Ltd., Consultants on Development
and Ekistics, in 1963. In 1958 Doxiadis founded the Athens Technological Organization and in
1963 the Athens Center of Ekistics. From 1958 to 1971 he taught ekistics at the Athens
Technological Organization and lectured at universities all over the United States as well as at
Oxford and DubliIn 1963 and 1964 he served as representative of Greece on the Housing,
Building and Planning Committee of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in
New York and was chairman of the Session on Urban Problems at the UN Conference on the
Application of Science and Technology for the benefit of the less developed areas held in
Geneva in 1963.
During his lifetime Doxiadis received several awards and decorations, both civil and military as
well as one posthumous award, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Gold Medal for
1976.

His awards and decorations are as follows: Greek Military Cross, for his services during the war
1940-41 (1941); Order of the British Empire, for his activities in the National Resistance and for
his collaboration with the Allied Forces, Middle East (1945); Order of the Cedar of Lebanon, for
his contribution to the development of Lebanon (1958); Royal Order of the Phoenix for his
contribution to the development of Greece (1960); Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize of the
International Union of Architects (1963); Cali de Oro (Mexican Gold Medal) Award of the
Society of Mexican Architects (1963); Award of Excellence, Industrial Designers Society of
America (1965); Aspen Award for the Humanities (1966); and Yugoslav Flag Order with Golden
Wreath (1966).

In the last years of his life Constantinos A. Doxiadis was ravaged by a particularly debilitating,
terminal disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as 'Lou Gehrig's disease) which led
to gradual complete paralysis, over three years. This, he fought with great courage and dignity,