For the man who taught us to see nature and humanity in a different way.
There are people who never truly leave. People who leave behind not just a body of work, but a whole way of thinking.
Thymio Papayannis was one of them.
We bid him farewell with deep sorrow, but also with great gratitude for all he gave us. For his generous mind, for his insight, for a different understanding of ecology – deeper, more humane, more meaningful.
Thymio was born in Athens in 1934. He studied architecture and urban planning at MIT and the National Technical University of Athens. In 1958, he founded the firm “Thymio Papayannis and Associates”, one of the oldest and most influential architectural and urban planning offices in Greece. Although he left significant architectural landmarks in Athens – such as the Peace and Friendship Stadium and the central building of the Hellenic Railways Organisation – his interests soon extended beyond the boundaries of architecture. His path led him to a broader contemplation of space, landscape, and their relationship with people – a contemplation that would come to define his entire life and work.
For Thymio, nature was never something detached from humanity. He never treated it as a simple management issue. He experienced it as a living whole. Nature, people, culture, memory, spirituality – all intertwined. He deeply believed that you cannot protect a landscape if you ignore its history. That there is no ecology without cultural values.
He envisioned a world where environmental protection is based not on exclusions and bans, but on living relationships. On understanding. On respect. He spoke of the harmonious coexistence of people and nature long before that approach became widely embraced. And he did so in a way that was calm, clear, almost self-evident.
For Thymio, ecology was an act of culture. It was a way of life and a sense of responsibility. It was the conviction that wetlands and landscapes are carriers of memory and identity. That they carry stories, relationships, and values – and that if we ignore them, we lose not only biodiversity. We lose ourselves.
From this perspective were born initiatives and organisations with a deep and lasting impact. Together with his close friend Luc Hoffmann – with whom he shared a rare bond of trust and a common vision – he founded the Society for the Protection of Prespa. He contributed decisively to the creation of WWF Greece and the Greek Biotope/Wetland Centre (EKBY). At the Mediterranean level, he was the inspiration and founder of the MedWet Initiative – the first regional initiative of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. His friendship and collaboration with Luc Hoffmann marked an entire era, as well as a different approach to environmental protection: working together, with people at the centre.
Thymio was a visionary, but never detached from reality. He was deeply practical and at the same time deeply humane. He listened. He respected. He encouraged. He believed in younger generations and gave them space to think, to question, to dare.
MedINA was born from him in 2003, as a natural continuation of this philosophy. Born from the need for a space where nature, people, and culture are not treated in fragments, but as a single, living whole.
Today, MedINA is part of Thymio’s living legacy. With it, we also carry the responsibility to continue this vision with integrity and courage.
Beyond awards, positions, and recognitions, Thymio leaves us something far more essential: the reminder that protecting nature is an act of love, responsibility, care, and deep humanity. That real change is built with patience, collaboration, and trust.
For us, Thymio will always be present.
In the way we discuss. In the way we decide. In the question that will return again and again:
“What would Thymio say about this?”
And so we will continue.
With responsibility, with respect, and with faith in people and nature.
Thank you for everything, Thymio.
Your thought will always be with us.