Monasteria village, Tinos island

Student:  Evangelia Alverti
Supervisor:  Stavros Gyftopoulos
Consultants: Irene Klabatsea, Konstantinos Karadimas
School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens
Presentation date: 31/3/2011

A small abandoned village named "Monasteria", which is located in Tinos island, Cyclades, Greece, is the subject of this diploma project. The village revives as an agro-touristic settlement through the restoration and reuse of its buildings, which are of significant traditional architecture.

The factors that caused the abandonment of the village in 1971 are not clarified yet but is seems that the village owes its name to small monasteries that existed in the area until the end of the 16^th century. The land surrounding the village, which was obviously used for farming activities, as well as a number of small farm buildings prove the agricultural character of the village. This factor combined with the remarkable architectural interest of the village's buildings was the starting point of this project.

The proposal of reviving the abandoned village as an agro-touristic settlement complies with the agricultural history of the village as well as the current local conditions, assuming that the touristic activity will remain mild and that the local community will benefit from the financial profits.

After recognizing, recording and analyzing the current status of the village, the proposal was formed firstly concerning the whole village and then focusing on selected locations of the village. Except for the abandoned buildings of the village that turn into agro-touristic guest houses there are also 3 selected points of interest in the village (reception, wine production area, outdoor exhibition) which have been chosen to accommodate cultural, agricultural and recreational activities. Furthermore, a new building has been designed and placed a few meters away from the village to accommodate activities that couldn't fit in the existing buildings such as conference halls, seminar halls and a small restaurant. The proposal concerning the existing buildings of the village and as well as the new building aims to protect and bring out the value of traditional architecture through a contemporary architectural view.