Manuel Baud-Bovy was born in 1935 in Switzerland, growing up in a family of personalities who instilled in him a love for the Arts and for Greece. His grandfather, Daniel Baud-Bovy, an art historian, had conquered the summit of Olympus with his inseparable friend and emblematic Hellenist Fred Boissonnas in 1913, while his father, Samuel, was distinguished as a philologist, musician and musicologist of Greek folk music.
From a young age, Manuel Baud-Bovy was interested in folk architecture, the natural landscape, ethnography and folk tradition in general.
As architects, Manuel Baud-Bovy and his wife Aristea Tzanou have been mainly engaged in studies of the organization and spatial planning of tourist areas and of countries such as Cyprus and Iran. Manuel Baud-Bovy also participated in or directed studies and activities of international organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In Greece, Manuel Baud-Bovy and Aristea Tzanou participated in international competitions: “Redesigning the Monumental Axis of Aristotelous Street in Thessaloniki” (2nd prize, 2000), and “Marina at Alimos, Phaleron” (2nd prize, 2002).
Manuel Baud-Bovy has written many articles and studies in his field, such as Architecture in Zagori, Kapesovo and Other Neighboring Villages (2010), while his book Tourism and
Recreation Development (1977) was translated into Chinese as a university textbook.
The Baud-Bovy couple split their time between Geneva, Switzerland and Pelion, Magnesia.