Giorgos Chatzopoulos

Giorgos Chatzopoulos is an architect engineer, with postgraduate studies at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, following a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation, and undergraduate studies at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens, where he is currently a PhD candidate. In 2021, he co-founded with Alexandros Spentzaris the architectural practice Nysa, with the vision of seeking spaces and structures that emanate from the Greek landscape and formulate into timeless expressions that crystalize a way of living. They aim to create microcosms that inspire and endow the lives of residents with meaning, offering unique spatial experiences and high-quality design across all scales.

Giorgos’ dream foresaw Greece as the springboard, both academically and professionally, from which a long-standing creative body of work would spring and establish itself outside the country’s geographical boundaries. The history of the office began with the participation in an open architectural competition that concerned a nursery and day-care center for the elderly in the city of Chania in Crete. The competition took place when Giorgos and Alexandros were still students at Harvard, and they were eventually awarded the 1st prize for their proposal. Their proposal was also praised by the jury on the grounds of its aptness, simplicity, and sustainability principles.

The proposal involves three gardens that are framed by four canopies. Each garden is specially designed to cater to each one of the particular groups of the program – toddlers, infants, and the elderly. The proposal elevates the outdoor area to the most vital component of everyday living, based on the significance it reserves not only in relation to the Greek climate but also to the education and development of the children. This approach follows in the footsteps of the most innovative preschool education programs, such as those at Reggio Emilia. According to this approach, the natural surroundings are of fundamental importance and they constitute a “third teacher.”

The project is currently under design by Nysa ahead of its construction, while the office is expanding, having been engaged in a wide array of projects, with the most prominent among them the redesign of the Merchants’ Union office building in Athens, as well as the craft industry/multi-space of the JAM pedals company.