Thymio Papayannis & Associates – TPA

With a history spanning nearly seven decades, the firm Thymios Papayannis and Associates – TPA, founded in Athens in 1959, holds a distinguished position in the field of spatial planning and environmental design in Greece. Combining architecture and landscape, urban and regional planning, and environmental management along with engineering disciplines, the office operates as a collective, interdisciplinary team driven by a profound sense of social responsibility, with a vision of achieving harmony between humanity and nature in a long-term perspective.

Its current identity is shaped both by the rich legacy inherited from its distinguished partners and, of course, from its founder and visionary Thymios Papayannis, architect, urban planner, and environmentalist, as well as by its steady orientation toward rethinking its role as a consultant and designer in an ever-changing modern world. Ivi Nanopoulou, managing partner of the firm, speaks about her commitment to continuity and to the office’s responsibility to remain a living hub of designers – open, contemporary, democratic, responsive to the challenges of our time – fostering collaborations and advancing architecture and spatial design with sustainability and the identity of place as guiding principles.

S.M.: The office maintains an interdisciplinary approach, combining design with technology, ecology, and culture. What needs do you foresee emerging – in Greece and internationally – in terms of architectural and urban planning over the next decade?

I.N.: Today’s challenges are immense – as are our responsibilities to address them. These include tackling climate change and strengthening our resilience to extreme phenomena, protecting our unique landscape and rapidly declining countryside, empowering local communities and ensuring social cohesion to smoothly integrate emerging pressures, reducing the waste of resources – particularly land, water, and energy – and ensuring flexibility in design, as we live in a world of constantly changing needs.

The challenge lies in harnessing technology in ways that remain consistent with universal and timeless human values. It has now become second nature for us to work holistically, across all scales and increasingly broad fields, using technology as a tool that enables us to meet new challenges – to monitor our spatial footprint through a continuous process of “zooming in” and “zooming out,” guided both by the human being as a social entity and by nature as a sustainable system. The great challenge today, both locally and globally, is to draw knowledge from the past, to live as its continuation rather than in rupture with it, to restore our relationship with the countryside as a productive and living landscape, to limit our needs, and to rediscover the joy and balance of life, coexistence within measure, beauty, and environmental empathy. We work toward this vision and actively support the work of the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (MedINA) – the NGO founded twenty years ago by Thymios Papayannis.

S.M.:Intangible cultural heritage is not simply a field of documentation but a foundation of your design philosophy. How does this cultural foundation translate into a contemporary and active process of spatial production? In what ways does memory become a driver of evolution and innovation?

I.N.: Perhaps many had the chance to see a unique exhibition at the Acropolis Museum, “Allspice: Michael Rakowitz and Ancient Civilizations”, which explored the importance of identity and memory, of resilience… I was deeply moved by the ability of the artist – and of the curators – to highlight both the value of the dialogue between intangible and material heritage, between ancient civilizations and contemporary art, and the pain of loss and rupture, the fragmentation of a monument or collection, and the need to restore their continuity. But how do we, as architects and urban planners, translate this cultural foundation into our work? How does memory become, in our contemporary projects, a catalyst for growth and innovation?

A recent example illustrates this: our firm was awarded the European Architectural Heritage Intervention (AHI) Prize in Urban Planning this past June, for the masterplan of the archaeological site of Ancient Corinth, titled “Bridging Time and Space: Master Plan for the Regeneration of Ancient Corinth.” The study was carried out in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Corinth, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and it stood out among numerous international entries for its innovative and holistic approach to cultural heritage management. As the School itself noted, the project “aims to bridge the historical layers of the archaeological site with the needs of the local community and visitors. It represents a model of responsible and inspired design for managing cultural heritage, combining traditional tools of urban intervention with sustainable development and exemplary management of natural and cultural landscapes.” The award, as the School’s director Bonna D. Wescoat stated, “recognizes the power of a collective vision for the protection and redefinition of cultural landscapes.”

S.M.: The office operates across multiple scales – from national spatial strategies and landscape management to architectural design. What is the main challenge when you are called to unify different levels of intervention into a single system of thought and practice?

I.N.: The challenge is not so difficult – as long as one seeks truth in what they do, to be both substantive and convincing. To unify different levels of spatial intervention in a creative and regenerative way, collaboration among interdisciplinary teams and successive analytical approaches are essential.

On one hand, this involves a detailed analysis and understanding of the space and the parameters that define it, emphasizing spatial and cultural characteristics and the landscape they compose. On the other, it requires the formulation of a strong vision capable of awakening local forces and aligning actions into a cohesive network of interventions, structured through a strategic, phased approach. In this strategy, open dialogue, consultation with stakeholders, and participatory processes play a crucial role – practices that are still lacking in Greece. Yet, when achieved, they can create momentum and long-term resilience. A characteristic example is the redevelopment of the Phaleron Bay – the “Aenaon” Park, currently in the tendering phase – a project that exemplifies commitment to goals, continuous dialogue, and cohesive design decisions that have endured and evolved over time.

Read the full interview in ek issue 301 | October 2025.