Maria Kouvari

I believe in the agency of architectural scholarship in addressing social and spatial inequalities, exclusion, and marginalization in a globalized, allegedly unified world. Engaging with debates on care, emergency, social transformation, and vulnerability, my work focuses on the shifting values, criteria, and priorities in writing architectural history and preserving built heritage. I posit we need to reconsider our relationship with the existing built environment in terms of resources, relevance, and meaning. I advocate for an expanded and inclusive understanding of (historic) preservation, with a particular emphasis on transnational perspectives and the empowerment of underrepresented heritage communities.

Maria Kouvari is an architect, researcher, and educator with a PhD in architectural history and preservation theory from ETH Zurich. Her current research concerns underrepresented geographies and transnational perspectives. Her doctoral dissertation, titled Minor/s’ Heritage, explores the built environment of Swiss humanitarian aid for children in the immediate postwar years. Integrating archival research, site visits, and oral histories, her work shifts the focus from the architect and the built artefact to the underrepresented heritage group of children. Minor/s’ Heritage has been awarded grants from the Sophie Afenduli Fondation and the Foundation for Education and European Culture.

She is the founder and coordinator of “Children Matter” a working group within the European Architectural History Network (EAHN). She is a research member of the working group “Heritage Year 2025,” a collaboration between the Chair Construction Heritage and Preservation and ICOMOS Suisse, and serves as an expert member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Shared Built Heritage (ISCSBH).

Maria is currently working on her upcoming book Housing Greece. A Century of Emergencies(Jovis research 10, 2026). Her recent work includes presentations at international conferences, such as SUDHT, AHRA, Critic|all, and SAHGB, and publications, such as AKTLD and Kritische Berichte. She chaired the session “Buildings and Technology” at the 8th International Congress on Construction History in Zurich (2024) and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the upcoming “A Future for Whose Past? The Heritage of Minorities, Fringe Groups, and People without a Lobby,” Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, jointly organized by ICOMOS Suisse, ETH Zurich, EPFL, and Netzwerk Kulturerbe Schweiz.

She has cultivated a strong commitment to architectural pedagogy. Her teaching experience spans diverse areas of the architecture curriculum and a range of formats, such such as lectures, workshops, seminars, and advising of research theses at undergraduate and postgraduate level at ETH Zurich. Moreover, she is a member of the educational development group “How We Teach” at the Department of Architecture, which focuses on teaching methodologies, creating enriching learning environments, and exploring innovative approaches to education. Maria has also been a scientific assistant at ETH Wohnforum-ETH CASE (2016), responsible for the conception and organization of the seminar week “People on the Move: Understanding Greece as an Arrival Country,” which explored refugee housing in Greece through fieldwork and workshops with the Hellenic Ministry of Migration Policy, the Municipality of Athens, and the Lesvos-based NGO Odysseus.

Maria holds a professional Diploma in Architecture from the University of Patras, Greece, where she graduated as Valedictorian in 2013. Her academic performance has been recognized with several distinctions and awards, such as the First Limmat Foundation Award for Academic Excellence, the Honorable First Award of Academic Excellence of the Technical Chamber of Greece, and the Hellenic State Scholarships Foundation Honorary Awards and Scholarships for Outstanding Academic Achievement. In 2015, she completed the Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design at ETH Zurich as a grantee of the Bodossaki Foundation and in 2016 she received her second Master of Advanced Studies, this time in Housing, as a grantee of the Foundation for Education and European Culture.

After completing her studies, she practiced architecture at the Swiss architectural office IttenBrechbühl (2018–2022), where she attained the position of Associate. Alongside her engagement with design projects, a significant aspect of her work was her commitment to training interns and junior architects, serving as Co-Head of the Internship Program.

She currently lives and works in Zurich.