SNF Health Initiative featured in Blue magazine

The latest issue of Aegean Airlines' Blue magazine features two interviews that spotlight the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Health Initiative: one interview with SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos and another with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano.

Describing the Health Initiative, Andreas starts from the very beginning, with the compelling story at Evangelismos Hospital that sparked SNF’s major grant initiative to strengthen the Greek National Health System, notes its integral emphasis on mental health, and discusses the Foundation’s collaboration with Renzo Piano. Summing up the vision behind the Initiative, Andreas says, “No matter who you are, you should be entitled and have access to health. It is not a luxury, but an essential good.... We have forgotten about people. That is why the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) succeeded, because people embraced it. We want the same to happen with health. We want to strengthen the National Health System, to make it accessible to everyone.”

In the same issue of the magazine, internationally renowned architect Renzo Piano touches on a range of topics, from the philosophy behind the design of the hospitals, to the importance of the natural environment in medical treatment, to his relationship with the SNF team and with Greece. He says, “…we are working to ensure the absolute purity of the space, its brightness. We want light to pour in all the rooms, even in the areas directly connected to the operating theaters, right outside them. We really wish to add the dimension of what I call humanism to all three hospitals. And there was no more ideal place to do this than in Greece.”

The interviews took place in the leadup to SNF Nostos Ηealth, which will be held on June 23 and 24 at the SNFCC. Read the full interviews with Andreas Dracopoulos and with Renzo Piano.