BIOGRAPHY

Elias Messinas is an architect and consultant in construction and environmental projects, and Green Building Assessor for IS 5281. 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. Since 2008 Elias is currently consulting the Municipality of Bnei Shimon (Negev, Israel) in a number of project, including a 'green' campus school, the creation of an ecovillage in the Negev desert, and the design of a visitors' center at an active landfill site, the Municipality of Misgav (Israel), and other ecologically oriented projects in Greece, Israel, and elsewhere.

In 2008-2009 Elias was the Chief Architect of Goodliving, a company to provide design, construction, and maintenance/management services for sustainable buildings. Since 2011 he is a green building consultant to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Israel.

Elias is associated and active in environmental organizations. He is the Founding Chairman of NGO ECOWEEK an international NGO active in more than 15 countries with members in 43 countries. Elias teaches passive solar Architecture, ecological buildings, and community hands-on intervention to students of Design and Interior Design at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT).

Elias specializes in ecological building, passive solar architecture and has been the consultant in a number of ecological construction projects in Greece, Israel and Cyprus - including an ecological community and 'green' schools. His work has been published widely, he has published numerous articles in Greek and English, 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, and in 2009 was invited by the Royal Danish Embassy in Greece to contribute on 'green' Architecture to the Climate Thinkers Blog on the official Danish website for COP 15 (United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009).

- Download photo of Elias Messinas
- View profile in Linkedin
- View profile in ECOWEEK