A Greek woman from Florina, Grigoria Oikonomou, is the architect of the stars of the Indian film industry, Bollywood and Tollywood.
He created a unique studio for the elite of the local community, with designs and constructions of luxury houses, bungalows, villas for holidays, under the name: “M / S SHIBA GRIGORIA PVT LTD”. Economou has offices in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
One of her famous clients is the popular actor and director, the world famous Rakesh Roshan. Despite the recognizability and the brilliance that it emits in the world of spectacle, it does not cease to feel, far from Greece, “the girl from Florina”, where she was born and raised. At the same time, she says she is happy away from home, in India, where she has been permanently settled with her family for the last 13 years.
“When we first arrived in Delhi, in the early hours of September 19, 2009, with my husband (s.s. the Greek diplomat), and our two little girls, I did not feel that I had come to a foreign country,” he told the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency. .
The Greek architect became the cover of the magazine “Elle Decor” of India, the most famous magazine of architecture and design in this vast country. She participated in the relevant competition in 2021, and emerged as the top designer, with a design and construction project for the holiday home of the year. In addition, one hundred architects were selected, for the architectural award of the best house, by the magazine “AD 100” (Architectural and Digest of India).
She considers herself lucky to have found her place very quickly in a country of one and a half billion inhabitants. In one year she created her first architectural office, with the aim of highlighting, through her works, the traditional Indian architecture, together with the western models of constructions.
“The first thing I tried to do was to meet people, to talk to them, to understand their psyche, their character, their daily life, so that I could express all this in my plans, having the wealth of knowledge of Western architecture,” he says. .
He designs houses, villas, along with their interior architecture and decoration. “Sometimes I take over apartment buildings,” he says, “but again it will be for a big Indian family. Still in India, in 2022, when children get married, they live with their parents. As in Greece before. “It is very moving, because many generations manage to live peacefully and harmoniously together, which is difficult to happen today in our western world,” he said.
He studied architecture and in Belgium he was engaged in interior decoration, the restoration of buildings and at the same time he studied psychology.
Straight line, psychology and the tradition of “Vastou Sastra”
“I adopted psychology as the sole driving force and subtraction as the design guideline in the creation of different living spaces,” he says.
In the design of houses in India, nothing is done, except for the building philosophy of Vastos Sastras, studied by Gorgia Oikonomou. “According to this theory of 5000 years, the Indians today there is no way to build a house without obeying the laws of Vastu Sastra”, he says and continues: “I wanted to create houses in which their inhabitants feel peace, joy and calm and not want to leave their homes. “Homes with positive energy, which give people strength, to be able to cope with their activities outside the home.”
He studied Indian architecture and of course he calculates everything inside and outside the house, in order to observe the art of building the house in harmony with the laws of nature. Grigoria Oikonomou emphasizes that her first concern is “To perfectly combine the straight lines of western minimalism with the culture of the place and the psychology of the people who will live in this house”, she says in her interview.
“The houses I built for Bollywood and Tollywood stars went into magazines and of course for me now it is a seal and certification of my persistent 11 years of work. Rakesh Roshan, to whom I designed the large mansion, from the base of the building to the décor, was photographed in his new home for several magazines and told me “What you have made for my family and kept the precious things of my heart, I think you could to make me someone else “.
“My Pontian roots helped me feel familiar with the Indians”
Although different cultures, Gregoria Oikonomou believes that the Pontian tradition and ethics have much in common with the Indian and that her Pontian grandmother, in Florina, had knitted with the woolen socks that warmed her feet in the heavy winter, and her dynamic optimistic open character and the man who knows how to love and respect others.
“I grew up with my grandmother Pontia, my parents, mother and father, she worked in Kozani. From a young girl with my grandmother and my mother’s two sisters, she lived in Florina. My godmother, who was a teacher in the experimental school, also played a big role in my life. “He taught me to study, to love learning,” he says.
My grandmother Elisavet Konstantinidou was born in Geitsa in Kars, and my grandfather Grigorios Konstantinidis was born in Tuigoun. My grandfather studied to be a teacher and served in the Russian cavalry as a reserve officer in the Crimea. During the destruction of Smyrna in 1922 they came to Greece. “The son of my great-grandfather’s brother, Yaskas (Iakovos) Iliadis, was a regional governor in Soviet Uzbekistan during the Gorbachev period.”
“Architect by my great fortune”
Grigoria Oikonomou did not think of becoming an architect, she just wanted, she says, to study outside Greece.
“Since I was a little girl, six or seven years old, when I was asked what profession I would like to do in my life, I answered:” I do not know, but I will not live in Greece, I will go to study abroad and I will live far from you! ” . “Maybe from a young age I felt that the story of my life would unfold very far from Greece.”
Excellent high school, did not pass national exams and left for Belgium.
“I applied for law school, and suddenly I realized that I do not want to practice this profession, where you can not create anything, except to offer services. At the same time I change the application for the school of architecture, completely randomly, without ever thinking about this profession. But then, later, I remembered… Ten years old, I went to Kozani to my mother and inside the construction site, I saw a beautiful female architect with long hair, she was wearing high heels, she was holding designs … I was fascinated by the image of the dynamic woman, I felt that I would I wanted to look like her. “
In the school of architecture, Grigoria Oikonomou did not miss a single year, she graduated with honors. “I also did three years of interior design in Belgium and two years of renovation of buildings, and at the same time he studied psychology. “In Belgium, she married Konstantinos Miatso.
They returned together to Athens, where my husband worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I at the Maintenance Directorate of RIS Buildings.
Then we lived in Albania, where my husband was Consul General in Tirana. “And from Albania in a few years we came to India.” Today, her husband is serving in Islamabad, Pakistan’s nominee, while Gregoria, she says she can not leave the five branches she has set up, lived in New Delhi.
The daughters and the Greek food
He believes in God, and that what he accomplished in life was His will. “I pray for my children, for my girls Rafaela-Erato and Angeliki. Most of the time she will leave for France to continue her studies at the University. “I believe my mother’s prayers also helped in the recent car accident, a few weeks ago, when Rafaela’s school bus overturned and my daughter did not get a single scratch, while the driver left the scene of the accident and is still missing.” emotion.
She also believes that her presence in the family, although working and very busy, is necessary. Having 10 people at the service of her house, she cooks on her own.
“I want my children to eat mom’s food, so I make sure to cook, even if I have to leave home early in the morning, I will get up at night and cook for my daughters, since when they return from school, I may miss it, but the children will eat mom’s food! ”
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