AKA – Apostolou Colakis Architects use vivid colors, bold geometries and striped woodwork to frame ‘ Voukourestiou apartment’ in Athens

High on Voukourestiou St. in Kolonaki, in a sleek 1980s marble-clad building with metal and tinted glass details, AKA – Apostolou Colakis Architects have completely remodeled a 90 square meter apartment. And it’s now a stylish and functional corner Pied-à-Terre for their Milan-based family. ‘Something fun and colorful’ was their only request. 

Architects started by stripping the apartment and reverting to the original layout: they squared filleted corners, widened bathrooms, opened up the tiny kitchen, replaced the drafty single-pane windows and balcony doors, switched interior and exterior door locations, and worked on improving the flow between spaces.

“They covered the crumbling black Chios marble with blonde wood and replaced the decaying metal and cracked glass balcony railings”.

Inspired by the quintessential Milanese architect Aldo Rossi and his emblematic 1980s striped Cabina dell’Elba in particular, they used a vivid color palette and striped woodwork to achieve a light, cheerful, summery feel.  Furthermore, they used clear, basic geometries (stripes, squares, circles, spheres) singularly or in repetition, oversize or miniature, to achieve a playful result.

“The ceilings throughout the apartment were painted sky blue, contrast with the brilliantly white walls”.

The kitchen and dining room console/bar were custom designed using Rossi’s signature vertical stripes, but in black and white with orange highlights. The black stripes are raised, creating a three-dimensional surface that is not merely decorative, but integral to the structure.

A wall-mounted ceiling-height circular mirror opposite the kitchen multiplies the sea of stripes. Hazy blue and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern were used in the bathrooms, accentuated by black grout and fixtures. Clusters of classic white opaline lighting fixtures were created on the ceilings: two quartets of squares in the kitchen and a circle of spheres above the dining table.

Facts & Credits:

Project title: Voukourestiou apartment, Project type: Apartment renovation, Location: Kolonaki – Athens – Greece, Architecture – Interior design: AKA – Apostolou Colakis Architects, Area: 90sqm, Year of completion: 2023, Text: AKA – Apostolou Colakis Architects, Photography: Alina Lefa