DUPLEX ON FILOPAPPOU HILL

The building is located on the outskirts of Filopappou hill, facing in a small park in contact with the western pαrt of the beltway of Ano Petralona. The area is consisting of small continuously and low-rise building land fields/plot, while at the same time is in a special cusp/intersection, with a dense urban fabric and an untouched natural landscape/habitat.
The requested building project was the construction of two houses with the main compositional choice being the development of each other in three levels and the integration of s significant outdoor space in each of them. The first is developed on the basement, ground floor and the first floor with an inner garden at the courtyard and the second one at the second and third floor with access from the inside to a planted roof.
The composition was determined by the processing of four main issues.
The first was the direct proximity and the visual contact with another building that we designed a few years ago with a similar size and architectural plan. The buildings thus had to develop a dialectical relationship, they share elements of expression, space configuration and at the same time they are differentiated.
The second one was the strongly unsymmetrical shape of the plot. The building is organized by the construction of a compactness solid of reinforced concrete that receives the obtuse corners of the plot and carries auxiliary functions and vertical movements. In this way, an orthonormal zone is ensured which carries the daycare areas with the maximum possible transparency, lighting, ventilation and viewing.
The third issue was the development of multiple relationships with the outside spaces. The roof is planted, conceivably continuing the vegetation of the hill, the living spaces continue on terraces across their width, bringing the view of the hill inside, and the creation of a natural garden provides similar relationships inside the building.
Finally, the building’s materiality expresses its functions. The functional zones of the spaces are defined on the one hand by the visible concrete elements of the building’s frame and on the other by the integration and concealment of auxiliary functions through white wooden structures that can change the use of the spaces.