Boulouki

About us

Our team is called Boulouki, named after the nomadic groups of masons travelling, building and advancing their craftmanship. Boulouki exists in the form of the Urban Non-Profit Company, based in Athens.
We are an interdisciplinary group, whose work is focused on the study of traditional building techniques and materials related to the protection, conservation and promotion of cultural heritage, keeping a critical mind towards the current policies related to them, as well as promoting values like interculturalism, sustainability and multidisciplinarity.
Based upon these thematic axes, the group’s course of action includes conducting research, organising workshops, conferences and events, and promoting projects in collaboration with the local communities and their stakeholders.
Our work is an ongoing research towards architectural heritage, focusing on the traditional building techniques.
We organise workshops and seminars aiming at promoting skills, the awareness of local communities and the engagement of different groups of professionals.

Projects:
• Stone Masonry Workshop “Boulouki at the Bridge”: The workshop took place next to the Plaka Bridge in Tzoumerka region, (Epirus, Greece). It was a collaboration between Boulouki, the municipality of North Tzoumerka and the Metsovion Interdisciplinary Research Centre (M.I.R.C). Objective of the workshop was to understand the stone construction as a whole, starting from the quarry and the extraction of the most suitable material, to the chipping of the stone and finally to the building process. The workshop included lectures by qualified professors, as well as practical experience on restoring parts of the old stone path leading to Plaka’s historical bridge.
• Earth Pavillion: A structure made from earth and reeds, using techniques borrowed form mudhif, tensegrity networks and rammed earth was constructed by our team and a group of volunteers in a farm of Arta. The aim of the project was the familiarisation with the techniques, as well as the experimentation of implementing them altogether, with minimum budget and equipment. Most important, though, we all got closer to building with earth, getting inspired by the immediacy of using the natural materials, the on site creativity and the need for cooperation.
• AVD Pavillion: A pavillion consisted by 4 Arches, a Vault and a Dome was constructed using mainly bricks and earth plaster by students of McGan’s Ooty Scool of Architecture inside the campus. This project was realised by our member Panagiotis Kostoulas, during his stay in India, requested by Prof. J. Subramaniam, in order to educate the students on traditional load bearing brick masonry.
• Shelters: ‘Boulouki’ Itinerant Workshop for the Traditional Building Techniques presents the educational program ”Shelters” places of protection, grounds of freedom which will be held in the mountainous region of Tzoumerka.

Grigoris Koutropoulos is an architect at Boulouki.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.