Alexandra Paschalidou-Moreti

Alexandra Paschalidou-Moreti, Greek: Αλεξάνδρα Πασχαλίδου-Μωρέτη (1912 in Istanbul – 2010 in Filothei), was a Greek architect who designed pavilions for numerous international exhibitions.

Paschalidou–Moreti was the youngest daughter of Konstantinos Paschalidis and Despina Pappa. In 1922 her family moved from Istanbul to Bulgaria, soon after to Thessaloniki and finally to Athens, where they settled permanently in 1925. She was raised in a middle-class social and family environment which had members who were architects and painters. Her generation (56 first cousins) produced many artists. Some of the most prominent are: the sculptor Giannis Pappas and the painters Eleni Pagkalou, Andreas Vourloumis, and Paschalidou-Moreti’s sister Eleni Paschalidou, who was the wife of sculptor George Zongolopoulos. and her sister Lili Paschalidou - Theodoridou, who was a doll maker.

As a student, at Zappeio Girls School in Istanbul, she was influenced by an exceptionally fertile cultural environment with notable works of art which encouraged her to develop an aesthetic and artistic foundation. From a very early age Alexandra Paschalidou-Moreti began to paint and draw. When she moved to Athens she continued her studies at the First Girls Gymnasium.

In 1932, she decided to attend university and began her studies in architecture at the National Technical University. In 1936 she became the seventh woman in Greece to succeed in becoming an architect.

In 1936, Dimitris Pikionis, professor of National Technical University and supervisor of the project concerned with the study and the analysis of the architecture and decorative arts of Greek housing, assigned the completion of that project to a team of young architects: Dimitris Moretis, Giorgos Giannoulelis and Alexandra Paschalidou. This team studied and illustrated, for the first time in Greece, the traditional architecture as well as the house decoration of 18th and 19th centuries. The study was particularly focused on the areas of Western Macedonia, Ipiros, Thessaly, Pindos and the Cyclades. The duration of that project was two years. The collected material was first presented in 1938 at the Stratigopoulou venue and at Zappeion, however because of the Second World War, the programme had to be discontinued. In 1948-1949 the Greek Public Art Club, under the presidency of Natalia Pavlou Mela, published the first two volumes of the aforementioned project: the “Manor Houses of Kastoria” and the “Houses of Zagora”. Today the vast majority of the study has been given to National History Museum of Athens, which undertook the publication of two more volumes, namely, the ”Manor Houses of Kozani” and “Manor Houses of Siatista”. In 1938, Alexandra Paschalidou-Moreti organized the Greek Pavilion at the International Exhibition of Berlin. In 1939 she married her former fellow-student, Dimitris Moretis, who was a mathematician and poet apart from architect. They had two children, Angelos and Irana, both of whom became architects.

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