The property is situated in the East part of the island facing Naxos. The plot is a steep olive grove. Earth is retained by dry stone walls which look like threads on the ground looking from above. The concept is to weave with the existing landscape, creating a new reality. A barrier is created by the body of the building in order to create protected courtyards from violent winds, a micro clime. The building is stretching out winding among the olive trees. Its various thresholds correspond to different courtyards. Life is organized around three olive trees. They become “important”. The house becomes the canvas for the promotion of the natural.
The last project of the architecture office – “architectures” – by the architect A.Giannakakis, is a residence with bioclimatic elements and very low energy consumption in the town of Komotini, Greece.
The site is approximately 735sq.m and is located on the suburbs of the city. It’s situated in the Southeast and shares a boarder with other private properties in the North and West. The area experiences powerful winds coming from the North, with high humidity and low temperatures in the winter, and high temperatures in summer. The district has low buildings with neighborhood character.
This project is about a 3 storey house (650 sq. m) built in the 70’s in the north suburbs, that needed to be totally revised in order to house a couple with their 3 children and a significant contemporary art collection. The house situated on a very sloping site possessed a conscious distinctive 70’s Athenian typical villa style usually found in the suburbs.
The existing five-storey building dates back to 1996 and it is characterized by its symmetrical shell and its monumental character. The total remodeling of the facade and the interior of the building aims to highlight the contemporary capabilities and to reinterpret the architecture of the past. The prior dense grid of the glass panes is replaced by impressive wide single glazing that reaches the maximum permissible height and length, leaving the view outwards unimpeded. The notions of completeness and emptiness, of light and shade, coexist in a harmonious whole of geometries and volume. Furthermore, unexpected views between indoors and outdoors, along with the element of slim openings, summarize this rhythmic change and outline the view. Horizontal elements, like single balconies and canopy, unite the two sturdy parts of the existing shell. The canopy at the ground floor welcomes the visitor to the building, while the canopy on the roof forms the coronation. In this way, the sense of consistency and succession of the distinct members of the building is completed. An open-air atrium is situated at the heart of the building, in response to the search for a “natural oasis” in the contemporary workplace. The built parapets on the roof are replaced with glass material, offering views to the Faliro Bay, within a natural environment of landscaping that covers the roof.
The design of the 38 rooms is directly inspired by the history and character of the original Art Deco building, and by the contemporary life of the ancient city in which it is located.
The main challenge of the project lay in the re-working of the layout of the building. Originally built to house retail space, offices and apartments in an era that gave little thought to the future legacy of buildings, the structure was arranged to suit the use intended at the time. The resulting irregularity of the building’s structure required an innovative approach to re-organising the layout so that it’s new use would work within it. More recently the building interior has been stripped back leaving only the façade and structural elements to provide the clues to its history and to direct our design decision making.
The Canaves resort brand is well established and extremely successful on the island of Santorini. When they approached us to design a new hotel we immediately understood the unique opportunity they had in their site, which had spectacular views of the famous sunset, without the spatial restrictions of the often cramped sites within the Caldera. The Canaves Oia Epitome is the first hotel in this part of the island to offer open, light-filled space with unrestricted views.
Our first task was to find a way to work with the imposing concrete and brick structure that already existed on the site, without affecting the overall built area. The planned hotel was relatively big for the island, with 24 rooms arranged, along with a restaurant and reception, in 3 linear blocks that together created a U-shaped plan. The massing felt awkwardly big and disconnected to the landscape. So we began breaking it up into several smaller parts and then redistributing them around the site, allowing them space to breathe within their surroundings.
In the center of P. Psychiko, a typical two-flat residence of 1955, is transformed into a 3-residences contemporary building. The reinterpretation of its functional and geometrical rules, results into the transformation of both the building and its surrounding area.
Τhe intervention is crucial. Only the structure of the building, as well as part of the external walls are preserved, while all internal walls are demolished. The existing flat division and the existing entrances are also cancelled. The interior organization of the new residences, the relation between them and the circulation around them is fully redesigned.
In Piraeus the port of Athens which is one of the largest commercial ports of Europe and connects mainland Greece with the islands Klab were invited to design one of the largest pharmacies in Greece. The site which sits next to the port was occupied by an old warehouse transformed to a night club.
Klab designed a new shopping experience transforming completely the existing building while reinforcing the existing stone walls with new concrete structure and introducing a new facade to the city and to the port.
The field is elongated, rural, planted with olive trees. The land is dominant. –How could a residence rise out of the ground, how could it be confined to a roof? The residence is its roof. A 60 meters long one. While approaching the plot, it can be perceived as a slightly elevated strip of earthy crust in front of the distant mountains of Euboea. It can be walked on. The roof is born from and returns back to the ground; it is planted likewise: helichrysum, drosanthemum, lavender, gauras, thyme. The roof’s shape is rhomboid and the living space is hosted under its central, maximum width area, while the sleeping quarters occupy the edges.
Facing the gorgeous coast of Heraklion Beach stands the Hotel-Restaurant Mourέlo Cretan Food & Drink Philosophy. Known for their high-end work and clever use of scale and forms, the project at hand brings forth a familiar sense of luxury with a welcome minimalist sensibility as a twist.
Mourέlo Cretan Food & Drink Philosophy outer shell is a strong homage to Modernism accentuated by strong clean lines. It exudes an old-school feeling to an undeniably contemporary architectural.
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