East Meadow Student Takes Architecture Skills to Costa Rica

Nine architecture students, including one from East Meadow, left Tuesday for Costa Rica to develop a recycling and education center after thousands of people voted on Facebook in an innovative competition hosted by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT).

Dimitrios Malliakas, 20, and a resident of East Meadow, is a junior in Tobias Holler's architecture class, and Malliakas joined 49 other students in the quest to help create the center for Costa Rican locals.

Malliakas formed a team of three, called MDC, with Crystal Eksi and Michael Koutsoubis, and they met in New York City and got to work. After the first week, half of the groups were cut, and the remaining students gave a final presentation to a board of critics.

"I am really excited about all of this," Malliakas said. "This is a great opportunity to do some good for others."

The group planned a design that would cause little impact on the Earth, placing an elongated building along the landscape. They proposed using trees that were previously cut down as well as recycled plastic bottles to construct the building. Their plan minimizes deforestation and also creates a covered educational space.

Their performance was enough to woo the critics, and now MDC and the other two groups will work together to envision and build the ultimate center. First, the students will put their heads together to come up with one idea, which will be presented to the locals for feedback.

"It will be an invaluable experience for students to travel to Costa Rica to further develop ideas with community input,” Holler said. "They will learn about building in a tropical environment, and experience first-hand the powerful role that design can play in improving life in a rural community." 

During the spring semester, the final design will be developed, and the ideal plan, according to Malliakas, is to head back to Costa Rica during the summer to start building.

"To do something that has a real budget is different for me," Malliakas said. "It’s excellent to meet the people we’re building this for."

Dimitrios Malliakas will be chronicling his week-long trip with a photo gallery that will be posted on Patch after he returns.