International creative research workshops focusing on design, circular economy, sustainability, and folk culture are being organized for the first time at Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark and in Anogeia.
The international research workshop "Periplus"—which approaches Crete’s material culture through a fresh, creative lens, integrating the circular economy and design—began on July 20 and will conclude on July 30, 2026, at the Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark. The workshops are held in the welcoming setting of the Anogeia Environmental Education Centre, with the generous support of the Municipality of Anogeia and the Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark.
Ιn this intensive field research workshop, with its unconventional methods, thirty talented students, researchers, and professors of design, architecture, the arts, media, and crafts—are participating, selected from 25 of the world’s leading universities, such as: Royal College of Art (UK), Central Saint Martins (UK), UC Berkeley (USA), TU Delft, National University of Singapore, ETH Zurich, Pratt Institute New York, Carnegie Mellon University (USA), University of the Arts London, Bauhaus University (Germany), The University of Sydney, Yale University (USA), RMIT Melbourne, London College of Communication, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Istituto Marangoni (Italy), Camberwell College of Arts (UK), National Institute of Design (India), etc.
The main objectives are: to seek innovative opportunities that will come from the exploitation of the circular economy and the local livestock and agricultural environment, in combination with a groundbreaking approach towards the folk culture of Crete; to propose new business and cultural perspectives to every aspect of the local society of the geopark, through different logics and approaches, which offer tools such as design and applied arts, in combination with pioneering international practices of micro-entrepreneurship and inventive collective partnership, and; to direct knowledge about the possibilities of the place where we live, in relation to the significant challenges we are called to face.
The workshop is organized by the non-profit organization The Periplus Project and an international network of academic collaborators, with the valuable assistance of the UNESCO Global Geopark of Psiloritis and the Municipality of Anogeia, the warm support of the Anogeia School of Weaving and the Anogeia Weaving Center, the Anogeia Junior High School and High School, as well as other municipalities and businesses in the wider area.
Already, on 20/7/2026, a visit to the Nida plateau and Margarites village was carried out under the guidance of Geopark personnel to identify the basic elements of local heritage, activities, products and objects. Specifically, the workshop team visited the mitato of Mr. Giorgos Samolis on the Nida plateau and the pottery workshop of Giorgos Dalamvelas- Mariniki Mania in Margarites, while, later on the same day, the participants were introduced to objects of local folklore through the narratives of Ms. Niki Koutantou (Axos-Livada Cultural Association) and Ms. Rita Skoula (Anogeia). The objects were made available for the needs of this workshop by the Axos-Livada Cultural Association and, for Anogeia, by Ms. Rena Andreadaki.
The results will be presented on Wednesday 29/7 at the Anogeia Environmental Education Center at 7pm, where a parallel Creative Summer School event is also being co-organized.
For any further information and a closer acquaintance with this absolutely innovative action for the Greek area, which operates with an open logic towards any interested party, you can contact the head of the project in Crete, Designer Dimitris Skourogiannis dskourogiannis@gmail.com at 6944510425 and the communications manager Elli Skourogiannis at 6970333350.
