This research study “Kakolakkos: one-day village”examines the parameters that form an imaginary reality, as a result of abandonment, disrepair, forgetfulness. The properties of the old inhabitants in a “battle” against nature, define and characterize the area, giving it meaning. My own analysis and description of experience is done in order to understand, define and interpret the experienced lived space of the village and not the space as such. The substance of architecture is its experienced being.
The way I followed for my research is based on in-situ research, recording and analysing Kakolakkos, mapping everyday life, activities, architectural domes and objects/traces of the inhabitants before the village was abandoned. In addition, talks with occasional inhabitants are really helpful, who do not hesitate sharing their knowledge and experience, adding a more realistic and representative (honest) dimension. Combined with photographic, audiovisual material and interviews, a visit-diary is made, where all the identifications of the village are recorded, from public external spaces to the internal of the buildings and each personal story families/spaces might have. It was essential my participation at the annual fest of the village, where evidence and information about the past of the village, as for the revival effort of the village by the descendants. Finally, manuscripts by Achilleas Maris, a former habitant of Kakolakkos, are presented and analysed. It is pointed out that this research has a laboratory and anthropological character in field research. In-situ research helped me discover and learn to read behind the scenes, not to trust , without ethnography, the written history. Not to abrade but communicate with every person, trust the experience and living of people in local communities as bearers of knowledge, narrations, faith, believes and history. Moreover, specifically, learn how immortal are symbols and legends, how they interract with history and are used by researchers.
It is important to emphasize that the reasons for disrepairing the village are not searched, but a general exploration of what kind of habitation implies such a lifestyle in a place like this and the information ruins/traces provide to us in an architectural and anthropologic level.
