Profiles
She is an Architect Engineer, from AUTH (1999). She has an MSc “Environment and Developemnt” from NTUA (2002). She has a PhD from NTUA (2012), titled: “Evaluation of Vernacular Architecture of Mountainous Areas using Environmental Economics Methods”. Her research interests focus on the areas of Cultural Economics, Vernacular Architecture, Urban Planning, Regional Development and Issues of development regarding space and communities in mountainous areas. She is a member of the research team of M.I.R.C., since 2005 and of the MSc “Environment and Development of Mountainous Areas”, since 2008. She is Laboratory Teaching Staff at AUTH (since 2013)
My grandfather and grandmother were born and grown up in mountainous Epirus. At the villages of Palaioseli and Pades, on mountain Smolikas. I liked to listen to them speaking in the Vlach language, although rarely did I understood them. Mountains were always part of my childhood’s summers. The tents at the bank of the river, the night hiking in the forest under the moonlight, the sounds and the smells of the mountainous land, the swimming into the freezing rivers, the hiking in the gorges, the climbing to the Dragonlakes, the trouts… Year after year hiking became more frequent. At Smolikas, at Timfi, at Olympus, at Mpeles, at Kissavos, at Paggaio, at Mainalo, at Zireia, at Dirfi… Visits at mountainous villages became denser, knowledge for mountainous Greece, its people and its vulnerable beauty, became deeper. What connects me with mountains? A deep love and a sense of responsibility for their future.
You are going to live for one year at the altitude of 1.200m, in a mountainous settlement that counts almost seven centuries of constant presence, at this very same place. You will co-live with other people. You are going to share your space, your time, your thoughts. This team-living will make room for your own talents – cooking, playing guitar, gardening? Everything is necessary. You are going to mingle with local residents. You will learn their habits and their living rhythms. Mountainous nature will carry you away into her paths, even you who never left the city. You will learn how the spring cold and the winter cold feels like. You will see peaks all around you. You will be amazed by the countless times their view changes. You are going to step out of the narrow borders of your own specialty and you are going to test yourself in new, some unknown, scientific fields. You will learn about mountains and, at the same time, you will experience the knowledge you are receiving. Knowledge and living will blend. You will come close with your teachers. You are going to cook together, play chess, dance. May be you will feel tired during this journey. In the end of the year you will leave having one of the most special life experience. May be you will find it difficult to empty your room, when looking back… You are always welcome to come and visit us. Besides, you are going to meet a lot of our former students who come again and again!