Saving Greece’s vernacular architecture, stone by stone
An itinerant workshop of builders, architects, engineers and others specializing in traditional construction methods and materials are among this year’s recipients of the prestigious Europa Nostra heritage awards for their work in restoring vestiges of Greece’s vernacular infrastructure and architecture.
Named “Boulouki,” after the Greek word for a roving theater troupe, the nonprofit travels around the country building cobbled paths, springs, wood-fired ovens, treehouses and lynchets, restoring buildings, small dams and bridges, putting dry-stone walls back together and organizing workshops in stone, wood and clay work in order to help create a new generation of craftsmen and women and galvanize local communities into action.
“The award is an opportunity to communicate our work and discuss tradition and architecture in different terms from the dominant narratives to a larger audience in Greece and abroad. Achieving this important international recognition has made us realize the true impact of our work and gives us a fresh basis on which to carry on,” said Ioanna Ntoutsi, one of the members of the large team.
Europa Nostra upholds the preservation and propagation of Europe’s cultural and natural heritage, while organizing campaigns to salvage monuments and landscapes that are under threat. The latter are carried out chiefly through the 7 Most Endangered Program, which this year includes Greece’s Cycladic islands and, more specifically, Sifnos, Serifos and Folegandros, islands which are at risk of losing their identity because of overtourism and overconstruction.
And this is where initiatives like Boulouki come in, acting as a bulwark against the further degradation of the landscape. Apart from the hands-on work it does, it also seeks to promote a new construction culture that draws from the inherent characteristics of each location, through educational seminars.
One of their projects, “Under the Landscape,” focused on retrieving lost knowledge of the craft that goes into the construction of Santorini’s famous cave-like dwellings, while also showcasing its cultural landscape.
“We need to see tradition and culture as open and polymorphic systems, as living fields in which to reconnect with people and places: So many different elements come together in the Cyclades’ lynchets and Epirus’ cobblestone architecture, both natural and manmade, that it takes a very dedicated researcher to discover them all. Every place has so many legacies and it is important to connect with cultures that feel unfamiliar. These are the legacies that we are exploring, with a fresh eye, untainted by narrow-minded perceptions of folk culture and tourism-oriented expediency,” says Ntoutsi, a graduate of the National Technical University of Athens’ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Boulouki’s heritage projects manager.
“Just consider that modern approaches in the construction sector, from bioclimatic design to zero-transport and using eco-friendly materials, are deeply rooted in so-called ‘folk’ or traditional knowledge and know-how. Managing natural resources is inherent in this knowledge, which is based precisely on this balance between human interventions and the natural environment,” she adds.
Boulouki’s next undertaking is creating a base in Epirus, northwestern Greece. “We’re restoring the old primary school in Fratsa in Tzoumerka and turning it into an experimental workshop and the country’s first center for research and training in the skills of heritage building,” says Ntoutsi, adding that the group will also continue its work in the Cyclades.
