Maria Kouvari

My research focuses on the shifting values, criteria, and priorities of monument and heritage preservation. Engaged with debates on sustainability, social transformation, emergency, vulnerability, and the ethics of care, central to my work is the identification of new types of heritage. I am particularly concerned with underrepresented heritage groups and transnational perspectives. Another quest of mine revolves around modern dichotomies such as form and event, structure and agency, past and future, theory and practice. By crosscutting such dichotomies, I seek to reframe how we understand urban and architectural conditions, both historical and contemporary. I advocate for an expanded and inclusive understanding of preservation and posit that we need to reconsider our relationship with the existing built environment in terms of resources, relevance, and meaning.

Maria Kouvari is an architect and architectural historian, currently pursuing her PhD at ETH Zürich. She is a research member of the project “A Future for Whose Past? The Heritage of Minorities, Fringe Groups, and People without a Lobby,” a collaboration between the Chair Construction Heritage and Preservation and ICOMOS Suisse.

Her doctoral dissertation, titled Minor/s’ Heritage, explores the built environment of Swiss child aid in the immediate postwar years. Her research unfolds at the crossroads of archival research, site visits, and oral history, aiming to shift 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.

Her recent work includes presentations at international conferences, such as AHRA, Critic|all, and SAHGB, and publications in the field of built heritage, 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 International Conference “A Future for Whose Past?” on Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, jointly organized by the ICOMOS Suisse working group “Architectural Heritage Year 2025,” ETH Zurich, EPFL, and the Netzwerk Kulturerbe Schweiz.

She is actively involved in teaching activities such as workshops, seminars, and advising of research theses at undergraduate and postgraduate level at the Chair of Construction Heritage and Preservation, 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. Kouvari 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 Kouvari 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.