DETACHED HOUSE AT PANORAMA 1

In a period when architecture is further developing, a new residence in Panorama embodies a new architectural proposal and seems to affect the evolution of the modern way of living. It is a simple building with clear rectangular volumes, expressing a consciously straightforward architectural proposal. The residence is located at Panorama, Thessaloniki, and has been carefully designed to avoid any modernity, the main goal being to achieve the best living conditions for the users-owners.

The essential requirement for the building’s location was that the primary areas should be aligned with the view. The residence was built on a 3,500-stremma land parcel almost parallel to the main road axis and the contours of sharply sloping ground. The main spaces of the residence and the large axis featuring the bedrooms and the kitchen face south west. It comprises three levels. The main entrance is accessed from the road level; from there, one enters the building having crossed the simple exterior nature-friendly space, and having left behind, on the right, the parking place. Standing at the entrance one cannot help but be impressed by the diffusion of bright light all around. The indoor and outdoor areas are inextricably linked through continuous glass panels.

The water element is crucial since part of the swimming pool located at the front of the building meets the interiors of the residence in a "Γ" shape giving thus the impression that the swimming pool and the living room are both located in a single space, with no clear wall separating the interior from the exterior.

Apart from the view binding the interiors and exteriors, one can also identify the open-plan perspective towards the vertical axis of the residence, achieved through an indoor patio in the main living room, which allows visual contact with the upper level where the three bedrooms and the bathrooms are located, overlooking the port and city of Thessaloniki as well as the swimming pool. The ground inclination was steep and thus long walls were avoided, whilst the waterfall at the end of the swimming pool was a design solution. Working with the naturally steep inclines, the result is that various levels hug and surround the building allowing access to the garden from almost all areas. The non-use of coating materials, the almost absent color palette - only shades of white and grey were used – and the use of only a few glass surfaces and mortar for the coatings aims to achieve a building unobtrusively nestled within the environment taking advantage only of the plasticity of volumes.

The same goes for the detached house interiors; the area around the building takes the lead through large openings, while the only materials used are the wooden floor at the ground and first level, and the white coatings on the rest of the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the interiors.

It is a building fully expressing the aesthetic taste of its users; it meets to the greatest possible extent their contemporary functional needs, and, being respectful to the environment, it cannot help but be an exemplary case for the aesthetics of the city and contribute to the creative designs in modern Greece.