ASTY by Dimitris Paschalis is a self-published short comic set within a dystopian future, exploring the consequences of overdevelopment and the gradual decay of the urban environment through the speculative lens of Athens in the year 2999 CE. The narrative imagines a city consumed by unchecked construction, systemic corruption, and profit-driven expansion, where developers operate without limits or regulation in pursuit of continuous financial growth.
Find the full version of ASTY here!
Within this scenario, skyscrapers multiply to such an extent that they not only surpass the Acropolis, but nearly erase the sky itself. Apartment buildings evolve into colossal megastructures, towering over an endless and chaotic metropolis defined by relentless vertical sprawl.
Urban planning, spatial hierarchy, and civic order have entirely collapsed, replaced by a dense and uncontrolled architectural accumulation.
The social structure of the city is equally polarized, divided exclusively between extreme wealth and extreme poverty. The wealthy elite occupy entire skyscrapers in isolation, surrounded by emptiness, exclusivity, and excessive spatial privilege. In contrast, the lower classes inhabit repopulated high-rise towers once owned by the affluent.
These buildings no longer function as conventional apartment blocks, but as hyper-dense collective environments filled with improvised bunk beds, temporary constructions, and compressed forms of communal living that condense entire neighborhoods into a single vertical structure.
Within this urban condition, privacy and physical distance from others emerge as the ultimate form of luxury. The protagonists, themselves members of the lower class, attempt to escape this suffocating reality, only to become entangled in a troubling and dangerous situation. In ASTY, escape functions not only as a narrative device, but as a collective psychological condition shared across the entire metropolis.
The project emerged through extensive research and analysis of the contemporary condition of Athens, combined with an ongoing engagement with architectural and urban issues.
Conceived as an extreme projection of the city’s possible future, the comic extends broader concerns surrounding urban transformation, speculative development, and the erasure of collective memory.
The narrative also operates in dialogue with Dimitris Paschalis’ diploma thesis centered on a dystopian version of Athens shaped by climate crisis and urban overheating.
While that earlier scenario examined abandonment as a consequence of environmental necessity, ASTY investigates a different form of urban collapse, one driven by vanity, greed, and unchecked economic ambition.
In both cases, the city becomes defined by indifference toward its own past.
In the climate-based scenario, extreme heat gradually renders portions of Athens uninhabitable, forcing inhabitants to retreat from shared outdoor spaces such as courtyards and rooftops. In ASTY, however, abandonment stems from the continuous pursuit of expansion and profit.
The city is never truly rebuilt, but instead endlessly layered upon itself.
Existing structures are neither demolished nor meaningfully reused. They are simply buried beneath new construction, remaining as silent and forgotten remnants embedded within the urban mass.
ASTY is available in both print and digital formats, extending its speculative architectural narrative across physical and online platforms. The digital edition is accessible through GlobalComix, where the project’s vision of a hyper-dense future Athens unfolds through the intersection of comic storytelling, architectural speculation, and urban critique.
Facts & Credits
Author: Dimitris Paschalis
Title: ASTY
Writing Editor: Christina Peppa
Publication: Dimitris Paschalis (Self-publication), Athens 2026