The Athens Gasworks Plant, currently known as Gazi, operated for more than 120 years before closing its doors in 1984, leaving a vacant space of 25 acres in the heart of Athens. The value of the location and the rising significance of industrial heritage, coupled with pressures from local groups, triggered in the early 1980s the City of Athens, owner of the premises, to take action. Despite holding a national architectural competition, in 1983, for the transformation of the gasworks, that task was handed over to a team working in Department of Traditional Buildings of the Municipal Technical Services. Tensions amongst stakeholders, designers, and decision makers characterize the years that follow until the early 1990s as the conversion of the site to new uses proves to be a complex and difficult process. In the meantime the site is classified as an Industrial Archaeology Park by the Ministry of Culture and an extensive survey of the buildings and their machinery is undertaken signaling the start of its restoration.

The discourse around the success of the venture at the time was contradictory, with the architectural and historic community raising the issue of an invasive reuse and irreversible interventions, and the City of Athens celebrating the opening of a cultural multifunctional venue in the heart of the capital, embraced by the Athenians as one of the most vibrant cultural hubs of the city. The regeneration, along with parallel projects in the area, catalysed a cultural boom in the area accompanied by a rise in land values and construction activity.