It was completed just a few months ago and has already received the recognition of the Interior Awards 2020 in the category "Renovation of apartments over 100 square meters": Iridou Attikou Apartment, designed by the Greek studio AK Praxis, occupies the second floor of a complex of the 50s, in Athens, and overlooks the National Garden and the Presidential Palace, not far from the Acropolis with its monumental ruins.
The penthouse is spread over a single level of 290 square meters, has three bedrooms with private bathrooms and a large home office space, and is characterized by a completely new Mediterranean style. The traditional white color dominates all the rooms, walls and ceiling at any point, including the tone-on-tone plaster moldings highlighted by linear lighting, and the thin skirting, in contact with the wenge flooring. The decorative profiles and the chevron layout of the parquet, which contrasts with the vertical surfaces, are used to remove any minimalist hint, reinterpreting the classic aesthetic.
The house thus appears as a container with almost museum features: punctuated by large openings that connect one room to another and by large panoramic windows with white profiles, it looks like an art gallery in which the furnishings and accessories can be read in the same way as a permanent collection. Contemporary paintings with black frames, sculptures, antiques and geometric pendant lamps help to design a calibrated sequence, where spaces are mostly left empty with the only objective of emphasizing the furnishings.
Completely total white except for the paintings and the floor, the kitchen develops in a narrow and long room and has a large central island in the center, equipped with a cooking area, sink and integrated snack top. The top was made of Lapitec in Michelangelo Satin finish, and the use of a single slab over 3 meters long allowed to create a continuous surface without any junction marks. The 12 mm thick rib also has the same finish as the top, thanks to the 'full-body' composition of Lapitec. Finally, the sink, the top and the relative splashback of the wall system are always made of Lapitec Michelangelo Satin for a pure result and a monolithic look.
The subtle veins that decorate the surface renew the architectural firm's desire to re-read materials and elements typical of classicism, but in a new dimension: no longer using traditional stone, but sintered stone, which while retaining the warmth and charm of natural materials , guarantees higher performance, also in a sustainable way. The composition of Lapitec is in fact completely free of inks, resins and other toxic additives: an essential detail for AK Praxis, member of the Sustainable Building Council of Greece and BREEAM LICENSED ASSESOR company (GreenBookLive.com), which like the company has always made sustainability the cornerstone of its working philosophy.