Renovations Stripped Away This Athens Flat’s Character. An Architect Brought It Back, and Then Some

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Athens, Greece

Architect: Thanasis Ikonomou, Studio Thanasis / @studiothanasis

Builder: Manousakis Brothers

Lighting Design: LUNN

Photographer: Yannis Drakoulidis / @yannis_drakoulidis

From the Architect: "Five years ago, Greek/Canadian architect Thanasis Ikonomou began what was meant to be a yearlong sabbatical from his job in Seattle and landed in Athens, Greece. The city soon tightened its grip on Ikonomou’s heart and mind, and so he decided to stay, establishing an architectural practice inspired by the culture and history of the place and people. House in a House is Ikonomou’s home in Athens: a restoration of a 1,000-square-foot, 75-year-old apartment in the historical Athenian neighborhood of Kypseli. The apartment is one of a series of projects by the architect that seek to express a genuine sense of place and act as a travel log for his experiences abroad. ‘There are a lot of historical buildings in Athens that are decaying but have so much potential, and I’m trying to help bring them back to life,’ says the architect.

Over the years, the apartment had undergone multiple renovations which had stripped the space of its original character. Ikonomou’s goal with the new design was to move the space both forward and backward, revealing layers from the past while celebrating its future. "I want to create dialogue with past, present, and future Athens," he says.

The project name, House in a House, comes from a centrally located kitchen which when built, was a house in itself: three separate rooms forming the nucleus of the home (a working kitchen, a staging kitchen, and a suite for the apartment’s staff). The kitchen renovation is inspired by a theatrical green room, a place for preparation and staging, and maintains the centrality of the original design. The kitchen features a custom dark green ash wood ribbon with Greek dionysos marble counters which transforms from kitchen, to eating nook, to laundry room. The full-height cabinet within the same space creates a classical totem, enclosing the pantry, coffee station, and refrigerator. ‘I wanted to prove that a lot of contemporary elements can be in harmony with classical elements; that the two aren’t mutually exclusive,’ says Ikonomou. ‘There can be a dialogue.’

"The partially unfinished nature of the main living space allows it to be transformed from gallery to entertaining space. Its wall-to-wall yellow curtain aligns with the theatrical theme of the apartment, nodding to the neighbourhood’s rich history of independent theatres. The rest of the apartment has been left intentionally unfinished; a gift for the imagination, its potential yet to be discovered."