Nikolaos Magouliotis
Curriculum vitae

Dr. Nikolaos (Nikos) Magouliotis is an architectural historian and post-doc researcher at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Maarten Delbeke, in the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) of ETH Zurich. Nikos obtained his doctoral degree from the ETH in 2022; prior to that, he studied architecture and architectural history in Athens (NTUA) and Oslo (AHO).

His research and teaching focuses on the history and historiography of architecture in the 18th and 19th centuries and more broadly in the early-modern period, with a particular focus on the following topics: vernacular architecture, both as a theoretical construct and as a historical reality; intersections between architecture and popular culture/folklore; processes of inter-cultural encounter and exchange; the dissemination and vernacularization of architectural ornament; the invention and negotiation of national, cultural and social identities through architecture.

Nikos’ current research – in the context of the SNSF-funded project “Building Identity: Character in Architectural Debate and Design, 1750-1850”, led by Sigrid de Jong and Maarten Delbeke – focuses on Swiss vernacular architecture. The research juxtaposes the ways in which urban intellectuals idealized the chalet as a symbol of rusticity and national identity, with the the actual lives, customs and beliefs of the peasants that built and inhabited such constructions.

His doctoral dissertation (defended in 2022) was titled Forlorn Folklore: Discovering and debating the vernacular architecture of Greece, from the Ottoman era to the Greek nation-state, and was part of the HERA research program “Printing the Past. Architecture, Print Culture, and Uses of the Past in Modern Europe (PriArc)”. The dissertation focused on the vernacular architecture of Ottoman-era Greece and the different meanings ascribed to it by Western travellers and local authors.

Nikos has presented his work in numerous international conferences and colloquia. He has published articles and papers in magazines such as San Rocco, ARCH+ and Cartha, as well as academic journals: Architectural Histories, Future Anterior, The Journal of Architecture, and Architecture Beyond Europe.