The Kefalonia program offers a well-integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to field studies designed for upper division undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of sustainable design and urban planning, environmental studies, landscape design and architecture, natural resources management, community development, social anthropology, and sustainable economic development.

The program emphasis is on applied studies, and students work locally to create sustainable redevelopment plans for the reconstruction of Blue Village, which fell during the 1953 island earthquake. Developed during long-term Venetian occupation, remnants of Blue Village's glorious past remain and include masterful ochre and blue plastered walls of pedestrian village structures. Students work on the reconstruction of this once sustainable community by contributing to redevelopment plans which apply best management practices and energy systems while preserving the historic design and customary uses of the historic community. Surrounded by an economic base of oil orchards which will once again help sustain its rebirth, Blue Village , along with other island offerings, makes Kefalonia the perfect location for the study of sustainable community development.

Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian Islands, with a total area of 688 square kilometers. It lies to the south of the Islands of Lefkada and Ithaca, and to the north of the Island of Zakynthos, opposite the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. The island is mountainous, with peaks running from the most northerly cape to the extreme south. Mt. Ainos is the highest of the mountains, with its tallest peak at 1,626 meters, Megalos Soros is covered with a very rare species of fir tree unique to the island.

Kefalonia is a beautiful island of contrasts--it has quiet, windless beaches and verdant slopes, but it also has steep cliffs plunging into the sea and mountainsides clad in the deep shadow of fir forests. The climate is mild and belongs to the Mediterranean maritime category, that is, the summer is dry and the winter warm and wet.

Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University


AWISHhellas