On the top floor of a two storey dwelling, is a small residence (40m2 apartment) of the “Kastro” complex on the Greek island of Antiparos. It was originally built by the Venetians in the 15th century and renovated by the Greek architect and owner Nikolas Athanasoulias in 2003.
The whole complex, which was composed of 24 two-storey dwellings, is located in the heart of the main village on the island and is arranged around a square courtyard with a central tower in its middle, where mainly the base of it remains today.
The idea was to reveal the spirit of the building, that was lost over the years while adding some new elements for contemporary living as a summer house. The key character of the house is basic and simple. Apart from the general restoration of the house, only some minor rearrangements of the layout were done to improve the functionality. Renovated on a low budget with mainly raw and re-used materials, traditional white plaster is used throughout the interior to unify the spaces while accentuating it with secondhand, lost & found or furniture designed by the architect.
An outdoor staircase leads up to a south-oriented balcony, which is the entry to the bright open living room with its high ceiling. The house has one bedroom and a small, but fully equipped cave-like kitchen, with its dollhouse-like cabinetry. The bathroom was and still remains located on the north-oriented balcony that faces the outer side of the “Kastro”. During the summertime, a moveable roofless wooden structure is installed on the balcony rail, that was designed in order to create privacy, away from the surrounding neighborhood.
