Achilleas Souras
For Achilleas, who is a 16 year old student currently studying for the International Baccalaureate, it all started with his toys, especially Lego. He soon outgrew the prescribed designs on the instruction sheets and would let his imagination run wild, building structures that would re-appropriate much of his parents’ house. The more he built, the taller the structures would get. This presented the challenge to keep the structures standing despite the artificial gales of wind and earth-quakes he would generate.
Fast forward to today and feeling troubled by the current global refugee crisis, Achilleas, who is somewhat of an international citizen himself, born in London and having lived in Athens, London and Barcelona, where he currently resides; wanted to help in some way. Being naturally curious and with an avid interest in architecture his reaction to the life jackets was to see them as more than a throw away item. Instead he saw them as building blocks much like Lego and his proposal highlights the key issues that Achilleas feels strongly about: how architectural structures that make good use of recycling can offer solutions to Human Rights violations, even if only in the form of shelter.