Gallery

Description

The new workshop for the painter and sculptor Alexandros Liapis is set up idyllically between olive trees, oleanders and cypress, in a 4000 m2 plot a few meters away from the artist dwelling in Dilesi, the ancient Delion, in Boeotia. Part of the landscape was incorporated in the open-space sculpture gallery, hosting the artist’s creations. The basic values underlying the new structure were: construction economy, production honesty / discipline, and finally a formal plasticity, able to open a dialogue with the spirit of the Greek landscape.

The new structure is a shell comprised of reinforced concrete, completed in three separate phases. The 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 new structure is located in the North-South axis, while the orthogonal plan view is divided into 3 zones: Primarily, 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, serving also 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. The wall openings, directly related to the Sun’s trajectory, combine with the interior lighting and the transverse horizontal ventilation sections in the building shell.

Biography

Praxitelis Kondylis is an architect, engineer and designer born and based in Athens.

Kondylis attained the Master degree in Architecture and Architectural Engineering at the Technical University of Budapest and a Master degree in Architecture and Interior Design at the Technical University of Catalonia. In Barcelona he collaborated in the research activity within the Doctorate program “El Sentido de la Arquitectura Moderna” held by Professor Helio Piñón at the Barcelona School of Architecture - ETSAB.

Kondylis collaborated with several architectural firms in Barcelona. In 2002 he established A31 Architecture & Construction Ltd., his own architectural studio in Athens. Having participated in several architectural competitions, receiving several prizes, his projects have been exhibited in several European museums and art galleries at Athens, Barcelona, Bilbao, Budapest, and Piran. His projects and articles have been published both in Greek and International press.