Boulouki

In this episode Jason König and Faidon Moudopoulos-Athanasiou interview Ionas Sklavounos and Marilena Mela about the work of Boulouki.

building work underway with sea and cliffs behind

Boulouki is a collective that studies and transmits traditional building crafts as an active and sustainable body of knowledge, through educational and participatory projects, many of them in mountain areas in Greece. It brings together architects, engineers, craftspeople, researchers, heritage professionals, creators, and local communities who co-shape its work.

building work underway with mountains behind

We talk about the beginnings of Boulouki, which was co-founded by Ionas in 2018, and the ideals that lie behind it, focused on co-production with mountain and island communities, and on the combination of environmental preservation with cultural heritage restoration.

We then talk about some of Bouolouki’s recent projects, which have included the Kalderimi x2 project that involved the rebuilding of the old pathway that leads to the historical Bridge of Plaka, the Frasta School project, which restored the primary school at the village of Frasta in Tzoumerka, the Shelters project, which involved building a wood-fired oven and a treehouse at a pair of mountain refuges, at Melissourgoi and Pramanta, and the Reappearances project, which combined a practical workshop and a participatory restoration of an old cobbled pathway in Aristi in the Zagori region.

Finally we discuss some of the challenges facing the mountain communities of Greece, but also some of the ways in which Boulouki’s work is making a difference, for example by forging new alliances, and creating opportunities for empowering dialogue between external experts and local communities.