Leasure
T
ATHENS, GREECE, 2021
JIC ARCHITECTS
DESIGN TEAM:
IOANNA FAKIRI, JULIE SPYROPOULOU, IASONAS VOVOS
T
Located at the foot of historic Filopappou Hill the project combines the contemporary minimal architecture, within the dense local 70’s urbanism, with its main focus to promote the famous landmark.
The original zoning of the building was of commercial use, on the borders of Kallithea and Petralona, it was spread in five floors and had a roof overlooking both Filopappou Hill and Arcopolis.
The exterior was kept to its original look, stripped down to the main static elements, beams and pillars, and painted to a neutral color to accentuate the brave window openings that was decorated with vertical metal black shades.
On the contrary, the inside of the building was redesigned to its full potential, with the aim to create cozy, practical and luxury living spaces. The rooms’ decoration was kept to the minimum using local natural materials, such as marble and wood, giving a tone of warmth and modernity to the project. The gem of the project is the penthouse suite at the roof of the building, that was added to exploit the location’s unhindered view over the city of Athens, with its vast outdoors space.
Year: 2021
City: Athens
Country: Greece
City: Athens
Country: Greece
The project is located in Metaxourgeio, in the heart of a residential area with a completely diverse anthropography and an ever-changing architectural "vocabulary". In this context, the building must have a strong architectural identity, as the location and the wider area works as an undefined collage of architectural forms.
The design of the facade, renders clear the separation between the external "face" and the internal "heart" of the building, by using two opposite techniques to emphasize the different impressions they give: on the one hand, the interior is exposed to combed concrete and other morphological elements of the Athenian architecture and on the other hand the metal cladding on the façade of the building.
The aim is to strengthen and reinterpret the character of the area through an architectural language that can communicate with the area of Metaxourgeio. Using simple and clean materials, our desire is to create a quiet and discreet building that is harmonized with the urban environment, while meeting the need for modern and technologically efficient buildings in the area. To maintain the volumetric characteristics, the metal mesh is placed from the first floor to the roof at a distance from the main volume that equals the length of the balconies. The purpose of this gesture is to identify the entrance of the building through the revelation of the old volume. At the same time, the difference in materiality, between the ground floor and the other floors, adds a visual variety between the two levels and increases the effect of stratification. As far as the metal cladding, panels of the same material but different drilling frequencies are observed, creating an atmospheric impression in the interior spaces.
Finally, the metal suspension beams of the metal cladding participate in the morphological impression of the building structure by exposing the balconies and the windows. The interior of the building was completely stripped and designed from the beginning. The bearing structure and the openings created an original system of rooms and common areas, which maximizes the qualities of the building and minimizes its weaknesses. Our goal was to focus and maintain the remarkable and vital elements of the building. The central idea was inspired by the city of Athens, by creating a central "boulevard" and smaller side "streets", each of which leads to a room, ensuring privacy and sound insulation. The elements of wood, copper, mosaic, pastel but also earthy colors and furniture are key elements of the building structure which follows the architectural characteristics, the curves, and the repetitive patterns of the facade.