modern suburbia

ATHENS

The client needed the legalization, repair and modernization of a two- storey house in Ekali, originally built in the 60's.

Our aim was to redesign the original internal circulation, with the least possible intervention in it, so as to ensure the autonomous access to the two levels of the building, as the family's needs led us to design two independent residencies, on each level.

So the existing semi-completed second floor becomes an autonomous modern residency with private access to the building's basement's space and to the garden's space, while at the same time construction works to reduce energy costs are being carried out (new frames and thermal insulation) for the whole building.

In order to achieve this goal we designed a new, transparent cubical volume made out of reinforced concrete on the garden level. The two levels of the building are connected through a new staircase situated inside this cube that gives autonomous, protected access to the second floor through the garden level. Moreover this cube becomes a special, common space in the garden that covers the owners' - the family of a painter and a biologist - needs to have a naturally lit space to work and store paintings. The house is 300 sq.m. big.