About
Stavros Zotos is a 35-year-old architect, NTUA-trained, ex-UNStudio Netherlands. In recent years he has moved back to Kalochori, his ancestral village in the Kalamas Valley of Epirus, population thirty. He runs Ecotopia, a Social Cooperative Enterprise (KoinSEp) building a slow, multi-front revival of the place.
The village café — shut for years — reopened by late 2024 and provides what the cooperative now calls 'steady income.' Organic gardens, planted from local heritage seeds, supply it. Ecotourism programs in the valley — hiking, rafting, nature-based education — launched in spring 2025. Workshops in traditional crafts and self-sufficiency run for both locals and visitors.
The structural project is the abandoned stone houses. Owners keep title; Ecotopia studies and restores; the houses come back as ecotourism stays, workshop spaces, and community venues. By October 2025, one house was rented and restored, a second rented and underway, with new members Tina and Laurens joining founding-member Michalis on site.
Zotos is also the village's Cultural Association president and the spokesperson for Epirus Against Oil and Gas — coordinating the regional legal fight against oil, gas, wind, and hydro projects in the Kalamas Valley.
Highlights
- Population
- 30 residents · Kalamas Valley
- Crowdfunder
- €4,078 raised of €10,000 · 78 donors
- Restored
- 1 house complete · 2nd underway (Oct 2025)
- Legal form
- KoinSEp (Social Cooperative Enterprise)
- Café
- Reopened Dec 2024
Deeper Dive
The crowdfunder, on the Polish platform 4fund.com / zrzutka.pl, has raised €4,078 of a €10,000 goal from 78 donors. The funds cover cooperative setup costs, stone-house restoration, café equipment and operations, website and marketing, and organic-farming and ecotourism preparation. The KoinSEp legal form, established under Greek Law 4019/2011, is a Social Cooperative Enterprise of Collective and Social Benefit — designed for exactly this kind of work.
The activism is not separate from the village work. On 22 April 2026, Ecotopia, the Cultural Association of Kalochori, and the Brotherhood of Kourentes co-signed a Facebook post: 'Epirus again at the Council of State (ΣτΕ) to defend its land, water and future.' Zotos appeared on the indie Epirus Falls podcast in December 2024 as the spokesperson for that coalition.
Mrs. Eli's goats Agapi and Titika are recurring characters in fundraiser updates. The aesthetic of the project is exactly that — old neighbours, new returnees, named animals, court filings, and one stone house at a time.
In Their Words
“Epirus again at the Council of State to defend its land, water and future.”