Spolia Project is about a property from the 1950s, which is located on one of the most central and characteristic streets of Patras. It was named after the Latin word “spoils” which is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby an architectural fragment or decorative sculpture is removed from its original context/monument and it is reused in a different context.
It was about a big challenge to us as it was a quite distressed classical apartment on the second floor of an old building, which the passage of years and the weather conditions strongly took its toll on.
Although the whole restoration of the apartment would be the easy thought, we went for a careful treatment and tried to use correct techniques and materials. Our aim was to preserve and restore the apartment according to its own typology, to preserve the elements of the period such as the plaster decorations on the walls, the old built-in cabinets and the wooden floor in the form of a herringbone. Overall our aim was to integrate them in harmony with new elements.
The place of the main bedroom was retained. We chose pastel shades of colors and we installed an open classic period bathtub. The old kitchen was converted into a children’s room, which consists of two single beds. The use of wallpaper on the walls could not be missing from this space as it was a very characteristic element of the decoration of the old apartments. The bathroom was kept in the same dimensions but its layout was modified. We placed Calacatta marble and golden faucets on the surfaces. The living room was designed symmetrically with a main axis of the fireplace. In the old dining area, the kitchen was designed to perfectly serve the needs of modern life, maintaining a better connection to the rest of the everyday spaces. Finally, in the entrance area we created a playful corner by placing a spun chair.
The choice of light tones to make the whole apartment bright, the combination of modern materials, techniques and aesthetics, harmoniously tied to the individual vintage elements, giving life to an almost abandoned space, which would work as an Airbnb, offering an interesting effect and practicality to everyday life of its inhabitants.