The clients’ dream: a bright, comfortable house to fit them like a glove, endowed with large openings, custom designed built-ins and extensive outdoor, green spaces.

The reality: the two top floors of a small conventional apartment building in the center of Athens which was still in the early drawings stage and which was designed by the contractor responsible for the construction. It seemed impossible to compromise the two until the building’s top two floors got erased and an independent dwelling with its own structure, entrance, layout, elevation, balconies and green roofs landed there.

The private and public spaces were given a floor each, connected through a perforated metal spiral staircase which is inscribed in a cylinder with a glass roof bringing light into the apartment.

The furniture, built-in and mobile, was conceived as a whole and great emphasis was given to closets and bookshelves. They were given the job to both, hide and store as well as expose and exhibit the owners’ collections of objects. The outdoor spaces, almost equal in size to the indoor, acquired many uses and cosy corners in order to function as a true extension of the house’s life.

The green roofs include a hilly landscape, trees, aromatic plants, a small vegetable garden, shaded space, an outdoor living room and kitchen with a barbeque as well as an impressive view of the Lycabettus hill.

The balconies include planters with climbing plants, terrazzo pots cast together with the floor and built-in clothes lines. Vertical heavy duty sliding tent panels comprise the final external layer of the apartment, used as protection from the sun and prying eyes.