Therasia is an island of a little bit more than 9km2 and 300 inhabitants, part of the volcanic island group of Thera —also known as Santorini— in Cyclades, Greece. 'Under the landscape' was be held in Agrilia, Therasia’s most important underground settlement and in the Monastery of Panagia Kera, at Cape Tripiti. The initiative highlights the unique materiality of Thera and Therasia, determined by the area’s distinct geological history and expressed in art, architecture and within the local culture.

In the Archipelago of Santorini, traditional building techniques are inseparable from the place’s natural resources —'theran earth', pumice stone, black and red volcanic stones— as much from the structural solutions and architectural typologies that have evolved in the passage of time. The latter’s most distinctive category is the so-called spilies (in Greek meaning caves), the underground spaces carved into the soft volcanic ground, which determined in many ways the formation of this unique landscape. 

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Agrilia, the geographical core of the restoration project, serves as a pertinent example of the fundamental relation between the anthropogenic and natural environment, as depicted in the settlement’s conformation for the daily labor and the social organisation. These include the underground spaces for the wine production (kanaves), cave-houses, land terraces for agriculture (pezoules) and drystone walls compile an architectural assemblage of exquisite plasticity and functionality. Agrilia, one of the oldest settlements of the island, was gradually abandoned until 1960 since its residents migrated mostly to the urban centers of Piraeus and Lavrion (Attica).

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