117. Thomas Doxiadis, Making Landscapes for Cohabitation

Thomas Doxiadis worked in the construction field before becoming an architect, eventually pursuing a Masters of Architecture and a Masters of Landscape Architecture at Harvard. He served in the Greek Navy and later worked as an architect for the Greek Olympics and at the same time taught at university. He then started his business which has been running for 25 years. 

Managing Work Life Balance and Personal Growth

Expanding from his professional life, Thomas spent the next 10 years exploring his mind, heart, and relationships with people. Through therapy, he found that people are much more interesting than he thought. He joined a coaching group called "Get Your Six," which focuses on treating oneself better through health, sleep, nutrition, exercise, relationships, emotions, and beliefs. The group is structured around six people sharing experiences and helping each other through different situations.

 

Life Lessons and Changes

Thomas talks about life changes related to health, sleep, nutrition, and exercise. He explains that building a business from scratch and trying to be at the top of his field took a lot of focus and energy away from self-care. He emphasizes the importance of taking care of oneself, eating right, sleeping right, learning basic breathing and meditation techniques, and changing priorities. He also emphasizes exploring and understanding the stories of our lives that we construct and how we spend our energy. 

Working in the Greek Navy

Thomas shares his experiences in the Greek Navy, where he spent time guarding armaments and working with 18-year-olds, which was a strange situation for him after his time in the professional world, but he found solace in having fun and laughing more than he had in the last decade. He shares a story when he was on guard duty and thought he was under siege.

Working in the Athens Olympics

Thomas recounts his experience working on the Athens Olympics. He had a positive experience despite the short turn around time of three years to complete construction.  He worked on the design and construction of mega projects such as parts of  the Athenian sea front and coastal areas, Olympic villages, and sports infrastructure. Additionally, he worked on setting up the city's flags, banners, and animation programs. He also spent two years dealing with the environmental and green aspects of the Olympics. His highlight was organizing the first mass olive transplanting, which involved moving the old Athens horse race track to a new area and becoming the Olympic Equestrian Center. The area was full of ancient olive groves and vineyards, some of them as old as 3000 years. The trees were transplanted to create a park and part of the Olympic venues. The trees were reused for the redevelopment of the Athens airport, ensuring they would be a valuable asset for future generations.

Growing up in Greece

Thomas grew up in Greece in the seventies when Greece was still relatively untouched by economic growth and tourism. The rapid economic changes after Greece entered the European Union led to the destruction of places he loved. He studied architecture and landscape architecture to find a win-win solution to building on sensitive, culturally and ecologically important places. His work and portfolio have been built over the past 25 years, focusing on resolving this problem.

Sustainable Development and Landscapes of Cohabitation

Thomas has worked on several projects since his time at the Olympics. One of his most proud projects was working on a pristine Aegean Island, where he and a high school friend developed techniques called the landscapes of cohabitation, which focuses on symbiosis between the environment and human activity. This approach has transformed the local ecosystem and changed people's minds about landscape work. His most recent project is with an MIT graduate from Northern Italy who built an energy corporation in the US and now invests in a small village in Tuscany. They are working on a 200-year sustainability plan, involving climate modeling and climate modeling to understand the future of the village and bringing vitality back to rural areas. 

Progressive Adaption to Climate Change 

Thomas' goal is to revive the countryside and lead it towards a better and more sustainable future, especially as climate change makes a better future more difficult. The European Union has been funding climate change adaptation programs for countries and universities for the last decade. These programs aim to understand the main impacts of climate change on public health, infrastructure, economy, and tourism. Landscapes are not just visual representations of environmental changes, but also provide a spatial understanding of what will happen due to climate change. Thomas talks about nine case studies that have been conducted across Greece, covering a region the size of Cape Cod. The eastern Mediterranean will be one of the most impacted areas globally, with heat waves, fire, and changing conditions. The European Union stopped spending on mitigation a decade ago and started spending on adaptation. Thomas explains what this entails. 

Design for Living Systems

Landscape architects are professionals who design for living systems, not just concrete or steel. They have the skill set to deal with earth, water, plants, animals, and living systems in physical space. The profession has transitioned from being mainly about aesthetics to problem-solving around nature in the past. The advice given by landscape architects is not necessarily heated or useful, but rather based on their experiences and lessons learned. He believes that architects should focus on the bright goal of a better future through design but also be more pragmatic about their surroundings. Thomas also discusses his artistic projects, such as the Castriani mine restoration. He believes that architecture is useful for solving problems through giving form to things, and that the way things look is important because it serves as communication and storytelling. People understand the world through narratives, so architects have the opportunity and responsibility to configure a part of the world that tells people something to add to their own narrative.

Influential Harvard Professors and Courses

During his time at Harvard, he took courses in Ed Wilson’s Evolutionary Biology and Moral Reasoning 22. He also studied landscape ecology at the Harvard Design School, where landscape ecology was a driving force and he learned how you could design with nature and for nature rather than against it, which set him on his life path both professionally and intellectually. He enjoyed playing music and attending international talks at the Kennedy School. This experience helped him become more international and consider himself a citizen of the world. 

Timestamps:

01:40: Personal and Professional Reflections 

04:38: Coaching Group Experience 

07:17: Changes in Life and Health Practices 

12:26: Experiences in the Greek Navy 

15:47: Role in the Athens Olympics

25:11: Projects and Philosophy 

28:40: National Climate Change Adaptation Program 

35:43: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies 

39:10: Role of a Landscape Architect 

41:29: Advice to Younger Self 

44:09: Artistic Projects and Influences from Harvard 

Links:

Website:  https://doxiadisplus.com/

Website: Got Your 6 Team

Society for the Environment and Cultural Change Website: Ελληνική Εταιρεία Περιβάλλοντος & Πολιτισμού 

Featured Non-profit

This week’s featured non-profit is Legal Services NYC recommended by Lisa Velasquez who reports:

“Hi. I'm Liza Velasquez, class of 1992 the featured nonprofit of this episode of The 92 report is Legal Services NYC. The mission of legal services NYC is to fight poverty and seek racial, social and economic justice for New Yorkers who need pro bono civil legal assistance. I've worked with legal services NYC as a board member for the past 10 years, and I'm honored to serve as the current board chair. Every year, our lawyers and staff assist 100,000 New Yorkers in obtaining access to the basic necessities of life, safe housing, economic security, family and immigration, stability, education and healthcare. You can learn more about their work at Legal Services nyc.org, and now here is Will Bachman with this week's episode.

To learn more about their work visit: LegalServicesNYC.org.