He was born in Athens in 1964. He grew up in the neighbourhoods of Agios Panteleimonas, and then he moved in Glyfada. He went to school at Athens College and studied at the universities of NTUA Athens and abroad. Then he met the «green» architecture.

Mr. Messinas has devoted his life to «green» architecture and splits his time between Greece and Israel, where he was originally found as a student and then as a professional. He had to learn Hebrew before taking an important architectural work at the most inhospitable part of Israel, Negev desert! He is chairman of the NGO ECOWEEK, and he has designed and he is preparing to construct a building literally within the landfill of Nountaim.

As he notes, «The building is at the stage of preliminary design of determining uses and architectural schedule of the project. The design follows the principles of green building, energy conservation, use of biogas (methane) from the station next to the landfill and will be using 75% recycled materials from the same area.

Of course, things are not always coming up to roses. Thus, this project has to cope up with the problem of financing, but once this hurdle is overcome it is expected to be ready within two years. The area will reach 2,000 square meters and construction costs would range between 2.5 to 3 million euros.

The architecture proposed by Mr. Messinas is if nothing else, original, and «based on the idea that the building is rooted in reality and the dump is theoretically buried below ground. It will not have windows and light will goes through the roof and it will give the impression that it is surrounded by garbage. Thus, it will give the impression that it is an area of controlled experience. As for the building materials, wood, gravel, washers, wires, broken concrete, rubble, tires, pallets and other, will compose a masterpiece.