Patio

The building was originally built to house retail space at a time when little thought was given to the future heritage of the buildings.

The difficulties of the building structure made clear the need for a bold gesture to contribute to its new use. Therefore, the interior of the building was stripped, keeping only the structural elements to lead the design intentions. A key design element was the creation of an atrium as the core of the building volume and the retreat of the building facade in order to create larger balconies as well.

By creating an inner courtyard, the movement of the sun, the direction of the winds, and the general morphology of the area are utilized to achieve an almost perfect environmental response of the building construction. In our case, the atrium is characterized by its strategic location in the building and its pure geometry, as a result, it becomes a protagonist in the spatial organization.

It is a synthetic tool that creates closed and open spaces, praising the possibilities of the space to integrate with the environment and to cooperate, giving a result of visual and thermal comfort.

The patio can be the center of everyday life, through which access to each room is achieved while ensuring the privacy of the spaces. The solution of the atrium is essential to the building since without its existence most of the spaces would remain dark with poor ventilation. Regarding the appearance of the building as mentioned, there is a receding of the main building volume as a second side is created from the 2nd floor to the roof with the timber blinds creating the feeling of swinging. The wooden blinds of the facade apart from sun protection, create a second level, beyond the building line, a filter that protects from the nuisance of the city. The blinds are movable (sliding) and introduce an element of constant variability on the facade.

The limitations of the irregular building grid define the geometry of each room. Sloping walls, gaps in the space, and uneven ceilings have been treated as an advantage of the design process. The construction is made of reinforced concrete that is kept unused and unpainted in some places inside, while the use of metal elements is extensive. Indoor floors are made from chipped siding rock plates. The coatings used on the facade as well as inside the rooms are chiseled artificially, with colored aggregates in the mass of mortar. The investigation of the organic relationship between architecture and art is attempted with the integration of selected well-known forms from the work of Alekos Fasianos. These forms, on the ground floor and on the patio, are either integrated autonomously or used as elements to emphasize the building boundaries.