ELIAS MESSINAS, Architect, Founder & President, ECOWEEK, Greece

Elias Messinas is an architect and consultant in environmental projects. He has been involved in environmental research, studies, and projects since 1995. He an alumnus of Athens College of Greece (class of 1983), holds a Masters Degree from Yale School of Architecture, a B.Des. with Honors in Environmental Design from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Jerusalem), a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urban Planning from the National Technical University of Athens, he is a post-doc Research Fellow of the Kaufman Fellowship at the Technion Institute of Technology (Haifa) and has attended and is presently completing a M.Sc. in Environment and Development at the National Technical University of Athens.

Elias has consulted the Municipality of Aegina in environmental planning, including european programs for the use of biomass, energy conservation, and sustainability in the Aegean islands. Among other projects, Elias was instrumental in starting a household waste recycling program at the 14,000 resident island of Aegina. The program was implemented in May 2007.

Elias is associated and active in environmental organizations. He is the President of NGO HELIOS for Sustainable Development, President of NGO ECOWEEK which is active in Greece, Cyprus and Israel, and a founding member and board member of the Association for Holistic Architecture and Ecological Building (S.OL.AR.) in Greece.

Elias specializes in ecological building, passive solar architecture and is consulting a number of ecological construction projects in Greece, Israel and Cyprus. His work has been published widely, and has been interviewed in the radio and television, including BBC World.

In 2006 Elias' work was published in the catalogue of the Greek participation to the 10th Biennale in Venice.