The project a two-floor residence in a large plot in Voula.
Light and openness was the user’s main request. The architecture proposal organizes the house in a square sliced in two by an axis that contains the vertical movement between floors. All communal spaces have extended large openings, so that the user never loses optical touch with the natural environment around. Large sliding shades with ceramic tiles are used in the semi open outdoor space, to provide shade or a medium privacy. Bedrooms are situated on the first floor.
The stairs as an architectural gesture is obvious in the total volume of the structure, since it divides the concrete volume in two, creating a linear glass ceiling that allows the natural light to penetrate into the space.
The project is about a ground floor residence with basement, in a developing residential suburb of the city.
The ground’s absolute flatness, along with the plot’s perimetrical spaciousness (square, pedestrian road, empty neighboring plot) and the users’ need for access with a wheelchair, led to a linear structural organization of form. A long-inclined ramp organizes all moves towards the entrance, but also creates a strong diagonal gesture in the front façade of the house. All communal living spaces are situated on the “ground floor” towards the square and the pedestrian’s road and the master bedroom on the opposite, more quiet side of the plot.
An independent small apartment is situated on the semi-basement that has access to a second degraded yard with a more private character.
Converting a two-underground-floor space of an unfinished building into a living space was a difficult, small scale project, because of the space’s endogenous characteristics. Narrow floor plan, a three-level space dispersion, lack of natural light and residential infrastructure were only some of the existing difficulties. This “urban burrow” was situated in the basement of a typical Athens apartment building, were our client -a well-known female singer- lived.
The client’s request was to create a dressing-room to cover her need for storing a big range of singer’s costumes along with a small office for reading. The dressing room is placed on the second basement with access from the building’s communal space. The office is placed on the first basement as a use that predisposes for a sense of solitude and focus. The main entrance on the ground floor, functions almost exclusively as a welcome gesture.
The architectural tools used in this transformation of a dark and cold basement into a space of artistic creation and occasional living were the right use of artificial lighting, warm materials and colours along with the promotion of the client’s personal objects.
The house is located in the highest ridge of Leros, overlooking two natural gulfs on the east-west axis. Our main goal was to integrate the building into the environment in a way that a unification of the highest level is succeeded.
The ground’s intense morphology along with the plot’s unique location, helped the building to penetrate the steep slope and become semi-buried in a part of it. In that way, the building’s volume is not perceived in its entirety and the house’s presence is more discreet. The ground’s morphology is restored and a green roof is created as an almost natural extension. An extra motive to create a semi-buried building – apart from our respect to the natural environment – was the bioclimatic benefits that a green roof adds to a building.
The house’s bioclimatic character is enhanced by the central patio, as it reinforces the natural cooling by recycling the air masses and creating a natural air-conditioning during the summer. It also creates a sense of openness, it amplifies the limits between indoor and outdoor spaces and it offers natural light in the semi-buried part of the house.
Open-air and semi-open-air spaces are created inside and outside of the building’s perimeter, providing the user with the plurality of choice according to his needs, preferences and the weather conditions
The house is located in the southeastern coast of Lipsi. The plot has an intense inclination and ends up in a private small beach. Our design approach was to create a house fully integrated in the surrounding environment with absolute respect to the island’s formal legislation and informal, intangible heritage.
The building’s volumes are separated in two different levels, following the slope’s inclination. On the first level the communal living spaces and an autonomous bedroom with it’ s bathroom is placed. All these spaces delineate a semicircle that inscribes the main house’s yard. An open space, with a 180° view to the open sea, a space that was always focal in the Mediterranean way of living. A wide pergola is placed at the lowest part of the courtyard were the family can sit, eat, and relax during the daytime. On the level below two more autonomous bedrooms with their bathrooms are placed. Each of them can have its own privacy but also communicate with the other parts of the house. The material’s differentiation in the two levels (stone at the low part and light-colored mortar at the top part) aim in the integration of the lowest part of the house with the ground, in order to diminish the total house volume.
