House Symbiosis responds to the evolving demands of contemporary living, emphasizing familial bonds and offering a nuanced balance between communal and individual living. The primary challenge involved navigating the delicate equilibrium between privacy and socialization for the two families.
Experimentation with geometry, spatial orientation and volumetric massing addresses this challenge. The project's emphasis on internal circulation drove the design process, adopting a sculptural tectonic approach reflected in the massing of the final structure. The resulting curvilinear formal language imparts a sense of dynamism and motion to the living spaces. The house gives the impression of heading towards two opposite directions.
House Symbiosis is located at a residentail quiet neighborhood in Athens, Greece surrounded by large parks and a few embassies. The house is located at the rear of a corner plot, forming an L shape in plan, leaving the front part as open space. The site allowed for a maximum of 40% plot coverage from which only the 27% was built. This planning approach shows an environmental conscious attitude to architecture, while allowing space for external communal areas for socialization as well as greenery. The projects respects its surrounding area by introducing a sustainable design approach and leaving behind a green footprint, while having 75% of the site dedicated to greenery.
Sustainability is a central aspect of the project. The building has an A+ classification in energy efficiency, which means that is an almost net zero building. To achieve this, all the latest cutting-edge technologies have been implemented in combination with a well thought eco-friendly design approach, while incorporating several green elements into the design. The project prioritizes also sustainability by optimizing building orientation to maximize sunlight exposure.
An important part of the design was the green roof in combination with the garden to create a green footprint in plan of the order of 75% of the overall coverage. The building uses renewable energy sources with the use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling needs, as well as photovoltaics to balance the electricity consumption.
The project showcases innovation in design and sustainability, as well as from a socio-anthropological perspective.
In terms of design the project is introducing an innovative formal language, while gaining inspiration from the yacht, aerospace and automotive industries.
In regards to its social context, the project is looking at matters such us co-existence and preserving familial bonds and values in an ever more alienating world.
House Symbiosis has a profound social character through its distinctive architectural composition. Its unconventional spatial organization bringing together two families in close proximity and its design approach while positioning social outdoor spaces on the heart of the project, addresses a series of questions in terms of architecture and human relationships. While the project works as a case study on bringing people closer in a residential context in the same time could teach us greater lessons in the subject of symbiosis in society and on the topic of building stronger communities through well thought architectural compositions. The overall flexibility and adaptability that the project offers aligns with basic principles of inclusive design in a residential context.
House Symbiosis embodies a strong cultural ethos, catering to the timeless desire of Greek families for close-knit living arrangements. In a post-pandemic world where the importance of community and connection has never been more apparent, this design approach aims to redefine the very essence of family living.
In a fast paced ever changing world, what matters most is spending more time with the people that we care about. The main scope of the brief was to create a new typology for a double residency to shelter two sibling families, that want to spend more time together, while in the same time maintain their own private spaces. As a result, House Symbiosis, was born.
Direction Architects, is an international award-winning Architecture and Design practice, based in London and Athens. It was founded in 2021 by John Kanakas, with the vision to create living environments, that aim to make people rethink and question their ways of inhabiting everyday spaces. Our projects vary in program and scale, while approaching each one with the same sensibility and design ethos. Our strong formalistic approach creates captivating experiential spaces.