Deacon Fr. Spyridon PAPAVASILEIOU

Education: Deacon Father Spyridon Papavasileiou received his MA(Hons) in Architectural Design in 2002 (RIBA Part 1) and a MArch (Des) degree (RIBA Part 2)  with Distinction in 2005 from the University of Edinburgh. He received his professional license as an Architect in Greece in 2008. In 2011 he studied for an MPhil in Environmental Design of Architecture from the University of Cambridge, ranking first in his cohort. His MPhil thesis received a distinction from the University of Cambridge. He won an EPSRC doctoral grant from the University of Cambridge in the same year. He is a PhD candidate at CUT, focusing on the Development of Optimisation Methodologies and Database Infrastructure Development and Artificial Intelligence adoption for the mass digitisation of Cultural Heritage Assets on the Island Churches of Cyprus and Crete.

Professional background / participation in funded projects: Dcn Fr Spyridon Papavasileiou, is the Protodeacon of the Holy Bishopric of Limassol (HBL), to his Eminence Athanasios, the Metropolitan of Limassol of the Holy Church of Cyprus (HCC). He is the Head, Founder and Scientific Coordinator of the “Digital Aposphragisma Lab”, an Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage Digitisation Lab of the HBL. He is an architect specializing in environmental design, historic conservation, ecclesiastical design and digital documentation of ecclesiastical cultural heritage. He was ordained to the holy diaconate of Christ in 2012, whereby he was also appointed to the Department of Architecture of the HBL. He has been the Head Architect for the first Museum of Byzantine Culture and Christian Art in Limassol, a contemporary, digital museum, for physical and digital collections, in the Old Bishoprical Palace of Limassol. Since 2014, he is the Bishoprical Representative to the Synodic Committee of the HCC for Cultural Heritage. Since 2015, in collaboration with the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), the Cyprus Institute (CyI) and FORTH, he has been spearheading an EU-funded pilot project under the Interreg-VA Greece Cyprus 2014-2020 initiative, named “Digital Aposphragisma of Hagionymous Islands”, towards a digitization legacy and methodological footprint for homogeneous digital documentation of Ecclesiastical Cultural/Spiritual Heritage for Cyprus and Crete. Since 2018, he is the Scientific Representative of HCC to the National Cultural Heritage Digitisation Committee of the Republic of Cyprus. Since 2019 he is the head spatial digitizer for the Holy Archbishopric of Cyprus under the EU-funded project RECULT under Interreg-VA Greece Cyprus 2014-2020. He is a member of the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK).

Research interests: Data-Acquisition Optimisation Methodologies, Digital Infrastructure Development, Artificial Intelligence, Mass Digitisation, Remote Sensing, Digital Repositories, GIS Infrastructures for Cultural Heritage. Engagement and Use of Digital Technologies for the development of flourishing of the youth. Brand-Design for the Orthodox Church in the 21st century. Zero Energy architecture, Interface Architecture between old and new.

Selected publications:

1. Evagorou E., Mettas C., Agapiou A., Themistocleous K., Papavasileiou S., Hadjimitsis D., Digital cameras calibration for cultural heritage documentation: The case study of a mass digitization project of religious monuments in Cyprus 2020.European Journal of Remote Sensing, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1080/22797254.2020.1810131.
2. Georgiou, R., Papavasileiou, The Digital Aposphragisma Project, New Methods and Approaches to the Digitization of Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage of Cyprus and Crete. 3rd International Conference on Byzantine anf Medieval Studies, 17-19 January, 2020, Nicosia, Cyprus.
3. Papavasileiou, , Pittaras C., Mettas C., Agapiou A., Themistocleous K., Evagorou E., Hadjimitsis D., Bakirtzis N., Sophocleous E., Lemonakis C., Vassalos M., Bekiarie C., Plexousakis D., Pouli P., Doerr M., Aggelakis D., Kannaki E. Mass digitization of Cultural Heritage monuments and artefacts in Cyprus and Crete. Seventh International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of the Environment, 18-21 March, 2019, Paphos, Cyprus.