An apartment in the area of Papagou, home to a multicultural family with roots in
Europe and Asia, was renovated with a view, firstly, to showcasing the cultural
wealth at the heart of the family in a playful and light-hearted manner, free from the
weighty representations of heritage and, secondly, to streamlining forms and
decluttering spaces, making them conducive to a peaceful and creative coexistence.
The renovation focused on rethinking the main entrance, the kitchen and two
bathrooms, as well as the color palette across all of the apartment’s main spaces. It
hoped to maximize on the dialogue of different textures and materials and to give the
apartment a general facelift while opening it up to the light.
The kitchen remodel, which consisted of interventions both inside and around the
actual room, was central to the project. Previously, the kitchen was an outmoded,
dark and rather oppressive space. Its entrance was clumsy and gave off an awkward
vibe, while space inside it was organized in such a way that it failed to accommodate
the family’s furniture and to adequately serve their needs. In its new version, the
kitchen becomes a canvas for the harmonious interaction of materiality and texture,
evoking a sense of tranquility, openness and joy, which is further reinforced by the
addition of a window opening onto the balcony and streaming natural light into the
interior. The entrance to the room has been given a complete makeover: two walls
have been torn down and replaced by corresponding ceramic walls, an emblematic
structure visible from all of the apartment’s main spaces, intensely tactile and
suggestive in its play with light, setting the tone of the project and providing the
apartment with a clear identity.
The kitchen’s new arrangement allows for more usable space: kitchen units extend
over a larger wall surface to create room for a table that comfortably seats all of the
family’s four members and also doubles as a desk, thus being the point to which
both the family’s everyday life and creative energies gravitate. There is a play of
different textures: kitchen cabinets incorporate metal and wood which combine to
create distinctly sculptural yet weightless forms; the old terrazzo floor is revealed to
gently hark at the apartment’s past, as is the raw concrete of the two columns at the
entrance to the kitchen which is left exposed to add to the evocative symphony of
textures that make up the space. Where the kitchen opens onto the balcony terrazzo
is combined with cement tiles, while at the entrance to the room flaws of the original
floor are covered up by means of handmade microcement flooring. The space’s two
thresholds are thus highlighted and become an added point of visual interest.
The intriguing dialogue of materials that underpins the entire project is carried on in
the apartment’s originally bland and visually unchallenging bathrooms. In the main
bathroom, tiles, concrete and microcement finishes as well as metal create an
atmosphere of casual intimacy, while a smaller bathroom serving the family’s teens
is painted a bright color and fitted with neon lighting, giving off a sense of cheeky
punk-rock vitality.
Finally, the project is completed with the main entrance remodel which incorporates
an airy handmade structure, a bookcase made of white metal rods placed by the
door and extending all the way from the floor to the ceiling, its size and clear, see-
through simplicity affecting the user’s overall perception of scale and rhythm.
