Sfaellos Haralambos (1914 - 2004)

Born in 1914 in Alexandria, where he grew up. He attended the School of Architecture at the N.T.U.A., where he served his apprenticeship with Anastasios Orlandos and Dimitris Pikionis, graduating in 1935.

He worked as a free-lance architect up to 1945, when he received a scholarship from the French State, to go to Paris and study History of Art and Aesthetics at the Sorbonne. In 1948 he graduated, and a year later earned his doctorate in Art and Science from the University of Paris.

On his return to Greece, he served as Head of the Technical Service of the Greek National Tourism Organisation from 1950-1958, where he designed and oversaw the building of the first “Xenia” hotels. In 1967 he was appointed Professor at the School of Architecture in Paris. In 1973 he returned permanently to Greece and took over as General Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, while also maintaining his teaching activities in Paris up to 1988. Simultaneously he served as U.N. consultant for tourism development for 15 countries in West Africa and continued his freelance architectural practice.

His works include: the Xenia Hotel in Kastoria, 1952-53 (in collaboration with M. Zagorissiou); the Xenia Hotel in Argostoli, 1955; the Xenia Hotel on the island of Thassos, 1955; the Xenia Hotel on Corfu at the position Kanoni from 1955-58 and 1963-64; the Xenia Hotel in Tsangarada, 1955 and 1964-65; the Xenia Hotel in Hypati, 1956; the Hotel Miramare in Rhodes, 1958-69; the configuration of the interiors for the American Express Bank in Syntagma Square, 1960; the Hotel Miramare at Moraitika on the island of Corfu, 1962; the Agrinio Technical School, 1967; the branch office of the National Bank of Greece in Nea Ionia.

Projects