How would you describe this building? The Artist’s warehouse is a monolithic Modern structure. Its orthogonal plan is divided into 3 zones: Firstly, the cantilever with the balcony in the South, where the entrance is situated, secondly, the artist’s workspace and finally the attic in the North which serves as a storage space. A straight staircase connects the two levels, while the cantilevered concrete steps can serve as exhibition stands for the artist’s work.
What were the most important wishes of the client? The most important demand was an open space structure of a significant height suitable to the needs of the Artist in order for him to hang paintings and construct huge sculptures. Another wish has been the integration of the new structure with the surrounding nature. A part of the landscape was incorporated in the open-space sculpture gallery, hosting the artist’s creations.
What kind of atmosphere the workshop expresses? The space created is open, friendly, solemn, and simple .It forms part of the nature as if it has been standing there for ages. It’s dome, a timeless and interregional architectural coronation element spanning from antiquity to Modernism, interacts with the intimate space of the artist’s house, the “cell”. The wall openings, which relate to the Sun’s trajectory, the interior lighting and the ventilation, stem from transverse horizontal sections in the building shell. The sliced concrete blocks that are removed now function as benches for people and pedestals for sculptures.
How is the building’s surrounding? The erection of the new workshop of painter and sculptor Alexandros Liapis was determined in a 4000 m2 plot and a few meters away from the Artist’s dwelling between olive, oleander and cypress trees.
What were the main challenges when designing/building the workshop? The basic criteria of the new structure’s synthesis were: the economy of its realization means, its construction honesty and discipline, its plasticity which would converse with the spirit of the Greek landscape.
Which are the materials used? The new structure is a shell comprised of fair-faced reinforced concrete, completed in three separate phases. The framework of the openings, plus doors and windows are made out of rusted, but burnished, steel.
