London-based practice Neiheiser Argyros has completed Grid House, the renovation of a 1970s modernist home in Evoia, Greece, that involved stripping the building back to its concrete structure to create a series of minimalist living spaces.
Overlooking the Euboic Sea, the home was originally designed by Greek architect Nikos Hadjimichalis and sits next to another of his houses that was also recently renovated by Neiheiser Argyros.
The structural frame of the home was originally infilled, but Neiheiser Argyros sought to open the building up by showcasing its structural grid and merging what was originally two separate apartments into a single home with large windows and patio areas.
"The Grid House is about repetition and difference," said the practice. "A simple and regular concrete structural grid creates a variety of interior and exterior spaces with views across the Euboic Sea."
"The project is a full-gut renovation of an existing modernist house that creates a six-bedroom house tucked into the landscape, appearing modest from the entry but opening up its full width and height to the sea," it continued.
At the north of the home, a new floating staircase connects the previously separate floors, which now contain bedrooms on the ground floor and a large living, kitchen and dining space and guest room on the first floor.
A landscaped garden with a swimming pool surrounds the home and cascades down towards the sea, overlooked by an outdoor seating area sheltered by a concrete-framed pergola.
A large paved patio space extends around the front of the home, with sliding glass doors giving the ground-floor bedrooms direct access to the outside.
On the first floor, the living spaces have been set back and the structural grid opened up to create semi-covered terrace spaces along the home's western side, framed by thin steel columns and metal balustrades.
"At times the grid is infilled with brick to create enclosure and privacy. At other moments it contains full-height, wood-framed windows to orient views out to the garden and sea," described the practice.
"In other locations, the grid is left open and creates exterior covered patios, balconies and pergolas," it continued.
The external board-marked concrete and brickwork has been finished with grey paint, complemented by the metal finishes of the balustrades, window and door frames.
Inside, the clean, modernist details of the interior have been retained and complemented by the addition of colourful accents such as a pink stair balustrade, timber joinery and furniture and marble countertops.
Neiheiser Argyros was founded in 2015 by Ryan Neiheiser and Xristina Argyros. Previous projects by the studio include a perforated metal pavilion in Greenwich, London, that conceals the exhaust vents of an underground station.
Elsewhere in Greece, Kapsimalis Architects built a monolithic home on the Greek island of Santorini that was designed as an arrangement of geometric forms.
Photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.