The village of Paleros sits between the Ionian Sea and the Acarnanian mountain range, on a privileged natural landscape. Located in one of the traditional roads of the town, the project is an intervention on an abandoned stone structure that needed to be transformed into a two-story house.
As a first design decision, the project recognizes itself belonging to the larger whole and therefore the front and back stone walls are left untouched. The original texture is expressed both on the exterior and the interior of the house and window blinds done in solid wood relate to the mass and raw materiality of the stone.
The entrance is marked by three steps and a hand crafted carved out solid wood traditional door. Once inside, the space unfolds to its maximum length, and the main living area is framed between the front and back stone walls. The perpendicular party walls and the ceiling are smooth and plastered white, and are shaped to give place to the stair, the fireplace and the WC. These white walls – together with the built in furniture – articulate the kitchen, dining, and living area of the house. In the whole first level the flooring is also smooth, but made out of a continuous grey cement texture that also carries up to the stair, and the walls and counters of the bathrooms and kitchen. Once upstairs, two bedrooms, each one facing a façade, have a solid wood flooring that announce the more private areas of the house. The work includes a custom designed kitchen, built-in furniture, shelves and cabinets that mark with different textures special moments for the daily living: cooking, dinning, reading and writing.
The interior design is completed with carefully chosen pieces of furniture, rugs and lighting, both new and old, making contemporary design pieces and old pieces found on the site coexist. In some of the most intimate places of the house the visitor finds familiar views: framed photographs depict the landscape nearby.
