ilia de tchaves

Ilia De Tchaves is a founding partner of DE TCHAVES STUDIO and licensed architect based in Athens. She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in New York and a Diploma in Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens.

Ilia has been practicing architecture in Europe and the United States for over 8 years where she has led a range of commercial, cultural, residential and hospitality projects from initial concept to construction. Prior to founding DE TCHAVES STUDIO, Ilia worked as a project manager at the internationally acclaimed architectural firm Pompei A.D. in New York, collaborating with retail clients including Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Coca Cola, L’Oreal, the Discovery Channel and many others. Previously she worked at the New York based Tecny Group Inc., a design-build architectural and construction management firm, where she was involved in hotels, high end workspaces and residential projects.

Her commissions are characterised by sensitivity to materiality, attentiveness to the creation of modern yet timeless design and making places that respond to their unique culture and context. Her approach involves close dialogue with clients and hands-on design that manifests her client’s vision. Through careful project management of her designs she ensures the project is efficient, transparent and successful.

mikela de tchaves

Mikela De Tchaves is a founding partner of DE TCHAVES STUDIO and a licensed architect and urban designer based in Athens and Boston. She holds a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University in Boston and a Diploma in Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens, where her thesis was awarded the Ecopolis Environmental Awareness Prize.

Mikela has previously worked as an architect and urban designer at Sasaki in Boston, WXY Studio in New York, K-Studio and Agnes Couvelas Architects in Athens and the Consortium for Innovation in Human Settlement Development in Accra, Ghana. She has worked as a researcher at the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative and Reactivate Athens: 101 Ideas, a joint collaboration between the Chair of Architecture and Urban Design of the ETH Zurich, the Urban Think Tank and local experts of Athens.

In addition to her practice, Mikela has served as visiting faculty at the Boston Architectural College where she led a graduate urban design studio and as a teaching assistant at Harvard University for the graduate landscape architecture studio of Martha Schwartz . She has served internationally as a guest critic at Harvard, Yale and Northeastern Universities, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston Architectural College and University of West Attica. Mikela has participated in various publications including Blue Dunes: Climate Change by Design, Extreme Urbanism IV: Looking at Hyperdensity in Dongri, Mumbai, The Camp and the City: Territories of Extraction, Urban Grids: Handbook for Regular City Design, REACTIVATE ATHENS: 101 IDEAS and GSD Platform 8: An Index for Design and Research.

PAST AND PRESENT TEAM MEMBERS

We wouldn’t be where we are today without the invaluable contributions of: