APARTMENT BUILDING IN GASTOUNI, ILIA, GREECE

PANAGIOTIS ZAKKAS, ARCHITECT

Architectural design for a new apartment building in Gastouni, Ilia, Greece. The building is located within a plot facing the main municipal road of the town. On the south side, the plot is adjacent to a kindergarten, while towards the west and north the adjacent plots are empty. The apartment building accommodates twelve apartments in total, six on each level, while the ground floor is designed as a free space - pilotis for car parking, in combination with closed auxiliary spaces. Facilitating the movement of cars within the plot was a key parameter that was taken into account during the design and largely determined the location and layout of the building. The apartment building is arranged along the east-west axis, as in this way was considered that the size and shape of the available plot is better exploited. The common areas for communication between the floors are grouped in an elongated central core, which is recessed in relation to the rest of the building volume in order to stand out. The central core functions as an imaginary axis of symmetry around which the apartments are symmetrically articulated to the north and south. Apart from the central core, the whole building essentially consists of one type of apartment, which is repeated with small variations where necessary in order for the exterior elevations to be more visually pleasing. In each apartment special attention has been paid to the optimal functional layout of spaces, as well as to the provision for large openings and comfortable balconies. The staircase in the central core leads to a shared flat roof. The proposed structure is made of a reinforced concrete frame with brickwork filling and cladding with a thermal facade system for external thermal insulation. The building has the simplest possible form in order to highlight the logic of the construction itself. The apartment building does not aspire to stand out with its form in the urban space, but rather to be harmoniously integrated into it and to coexist with its surroundings, as if it has always been there.