One of the primary goals of this project was to renovate the apartment to align with the client’s preferences. Recently relocated to Paris for professional reasons, the apartment's owner acquired an old residence nestled in the 16th arrondissement. The property composed of a spacious living room, a dining room, a kitchen, one master bedroom, 2 bathrooms and an office space. The interior of the apartment carries eclectic & Art Deco elements with bespoke and custom-made furniture.
In the living room there are two built-in libraries and in the center a marble fireplace with a custom-made mirror above. The walls are painted in a soft ivory color. The natural oak parquet floor has a distinct pattern and in combination with the Tinos green marble skirting board makes a balanced contrast. There are two Tacchini “Julep” sofas and two iconic “Doron Hotel” armchairs with a travertine stone GamFratesi’s “Epic Table” for GUBI in front of the fireplace. On the other side of the living room there is a big central painting by the artist Johnny Abrahams, “Untitled”, with a custom-made marble sideboard and two wall lamps “Pamplona” on the sides by Dimoremilano. On the two sides of the sideboard, we placed two notable “Hill House I” chairs by Mackintosh in oil green velvet seat-cushion. The lights were very carefully selected so that they can blend harmoniously with the different materials and textures of the apartment. The outstanding central pendant light of the living room is the “Fiddlehead Cantilever” by Jason Miller and the brushed aluminum spots are “Park IV Sconce” by Workstead. On the back side of the sofas there is a black wooden bench with the vintage floor lamp by Paavo Tynell “9602” on the right. Between the living room and dining room there is a tall wooden custom-made double door with glass that connects the two rooms. The knobs are from the series of “ONE” by Piet Boon.
Transitioning to the dining area there is a big custom made light yellow with black lacquered dining table surrounded by a set of 8 iconic “Die Fledermaus” dining chairs by Josef Hoffmann, painted in white lacquered with oil green velvet seat-cushion. Behind the dining table we placed on the same style custom-made lacquered sideboard with Calacatta Viola marble on top. On the wall above the sideboard there is a printed photograph “Impermanence” by Maria Louiza Biri with two “Carmel” sconces on the sides by Magni Home Collection. The interesting architectural element in this room are the two niches that were covered with small rectangular mirrors and in front of them we placed two custom made tables for displaying antique vases. The central white cones chandelier above the dining table has designed by Miles Redd.
On the other side of the dining area, on the right, we see a small sitting area with two “Marte Lounge Chairs” with the well-known coffee table “Soda” by Yiannis Ghikas and above the beautiful painting by Rubeena Ratcliffe. On the left we have the “Coexist” bench designed by Slash Objects in Carrara marble & brushed nickel with the “Totem” floor lamp by Palefire and above the famous painting “Bird Flying” by A.Fassianos.
Flooring follows the same logic of contrast in the hall that connects the master bedroom with the dining room and the other spaces. In the master bedroom behind the bed the wall has covered with mirrors in a niche with a white marble headboard. In the 2 bathrooms we have beautiful different marble patterns in the floors that make the spaces unique and elegant. The kitchen has rectangular terrazzo tiles in combination with the inox island and kitchen cabinets and the white marble on top of the counter. The original configuration of the apartment had a second bedroom where now became the office space of the client.
The apartment was renovated and restored as a contemporary residence while maintaining its authentic features as the main structural division. The materials were curated with precision along with natural, light and raw materials and colors in order to achieve a harmonious aesthetic.
Interior Design & Styling: Maria Louiza Biri
Visualization: Moon Visual Studio
The concept of the flower shop ‘Ethereal’ is based on three principles, simplicity, elegance and utility. The owner asked for a new fresh design approach for his flower shop in Copenhagen. Intended to captivate clients the façade has a big shaped display window which the client can see the interior and catch his attention. Dark and light grey tiles terrazzo combined with copper create a contrast combination of solid and shiny surfaces. All the furniture is custom-made and creates eye-catching design details. The cashier’s desk has a light installation above as a central feature of the room. In the center of the room there are 3 counters with embedded flower pots. On the right side of the cashier’s desk a flower display fridge keeps the flowers fresh and beautiful. On the opposite wall there is a wall installation of copper flower pots and solid terrazzo wall shelves with vases. A room on the back of the shop has displays of bouquets for special occasions. When the client enters at the shop he takes the impression that the flowers are so precious as jewelries in a jewelry shop.
For my Master’s thesis through the study of "heterotopias" I investigated whether it is possible "heterotopias" can be created by architects or designers. To answer this question, I first studied the space as a contributing factor of the existence of a heterotopia. This was my research question but for the execution of the idea I designed a concept store of COS that is based on the concept and principles of heterotopia of M. Foucault. Heterotopias are spaces of otherness, of difference, which appear to be simultaneously physical and mental. The concept store is made by 6 shipping containers 12m by 2.5m each and has 3 spaces. The store provides a unique experience to the customer by exploring the cloth in a heterotopian space. The story behind all these three spaces is how the cloth on its own becomes a heterotopian space and how you notice a detail. In my heterotopic store in the first space when you enter in the store there are the clothes that are surrounded by installations of foam. In the first space I focus on the experience of the feeling that the clothes are one with the space. The installations of foam are enlarged patterns of the clothes so that the detail becomes a space. The customers are not able to see the whole design of the cloth but a part of it. They have to walk through the foam installations and move if they want to see the whole design of the cloth. The foam gives the feeling of softness, simplicity, layering, purity, security as the clothes of COS and the feeling of fluidity and movement because of the forms that foam can create. In addition, because there is foam on the walls on the ceiling and on the floor you have the impression that foam comes out of the walls. In the second room there are the fitting rooms where mirrors in various shapes are installed on the wall dividers. Each customer will have the ability to move the walls and create their own heterotopic fitting room. There aren’t big mirrors that someone can see the whole body, the various forms of mirrors will reflect a part/detail of the cloth so that becomes an abstract image of a fabric, so that becomes “the other”. Mirrors are heterotopias and show places that exist and don’t exist at the same time. For the third space there is the concept of heterochronisms which means actions that are not happening at the same time. Foucault for the fourth principle he stated, “heterotopias are most linked to slices of time”. In the window display there are clothes and sand will drop from the above and fill the empty space in order to hide some parts of the cloth. Sand is connected with the time because is used in hourglass in order to count time. In the third space the customer can purchase the product but will not take it after he will pay, he will give the address of his house and COS will send it there so the process of shopping becomes heterotopic. In addition sand will drop from the above and there will be movement detectors so when the customers walk underneath them it will stop. In between the sand rain there are clothes that are installed in big hourglasses with sand and when the one side fills then it turns and reveals the other side. The store would be floating in the water, the perfect heterotopia for Foucault was the ship because “is a floating piece of space, a place without a place that exists by itself”. Shipping containers have the ability to travel to other countries and places and are not characterized as permanent spaces. I used containers as a metaphor of the ship in order to build my store.
ELXIS, which means attraction from the ancient Greek word ἕλξις, explores how light travels and reflects on various surfaces with different textures. ELXIS is a wall light with an aluminum base with a hidden LED strip light inside which reflects on the surfaces of 3 acrylic circles. The circles are enveloped inside a clear bio resin circle. The light travels through the clear resin without being visible by the human eye. When the light touches the surfaces of the inside circles, it becomes visible because it’s reflected on their 3D surfaces. I wanted to design a light that creates curiosity of how the light travels without being visible and how suddenly it is reflected on different surfaces. The bigger circle has vertical stripes, the middle one ranges from opaque to translucent and the smaller is opaque. The 3 illuminated circles give the impression that they are floating in space.
ELXIS consists of an aluminum track, bio clear resin and enveloped acrylic sheets.
The dimensions of ELXIS are
Diameter: 350mm
Width of the clear resin: 20mm
Width of acrylic sheets: 5mm
Light: LED strip 14W, 4000k.
Visualization-Renders: Manos Markakis
