Hellinikon apartment by KKMK Architects

KKMK – Karagianni Karamali Architects have renovated an apartment for a couple of musicians at Hellinikon, Athens. The apartment is located next to the former airport of Athens, which is about to be turned into a new residential and cultural complex.

With a total floor area of 173 square metres, and with panoramic views of the sea, the flat is an ideal home for the young couple. Being qanun and bass players and composers, they were looking for a comfortable and inspiring setting for their life together. KKMK Architects altered the original plan layout by expanding the living room to add an open plan kitchen, and dining area. In order to distinguish uses, a visual interplay was affected by employing specific materials wrapping the space in 3D. The dining room has been visually united with the kitchen, creating a background to the living room. A frosted glass door separates the kitchen from the dining area. The wall behind the dining table was clad in single floor-to-ceiling marble “Volakas” slabs. It appears as a natural painting in space, giving tension and character to the white surroundings. On the other side of the living room, the marbled fireplace dominates the lounge area as it stands out of the wooden floor like two floating marble slabs. As multiple focal points coexist in the front part of the living room, such as the fireplace, the bookcase and the sea view, a flexible couch layout was proposed that enables visitors to face different directions.

The 3D wrapping of materials in space extends in the master bedroom where the wooden surfaces create a cosy cocooning environment around the bed. Frosted glass is employed here too, to separate the en-suite bathroom from the bedroom and add to the latter visual depth and light. These aspects were accentuated by reflections of the mirror covered closet on the opposite side of the bathroom. Both in master bedroom and living room areas, the linen white curtains filter the intense sunlight and add a soft and translucent aura in the interior.

The owners requested some colour to give a playful character to the second bathroom. The architects proposed a custom marble mosaic cladding for the shower wall. The mosaic ‘Possi’, was made of a combination of pure white Greek marble and blue ‘Macauba’ Marble. Algorithmic design was used for a fish-shape digital drawing to be carved out of white Greek marble by water-jet laser cutter. The voids shapes were then similarly cut out of blue “Macauba” and inserted in place by hand. “Possi” added a contemporary and organic feature with a Mediterranean touch.