Waterfront Nikis Apartment is located in the heart of Thessaloniki, Greece, on Nikis Avenue (Victory Avenue) the old waterfront promenade. The apartment is 120m2 and has a living room, a dining room, three bedrooms, a shower room, a WC, a storage room, a kitchen and two balconies (one at the front overlooking the sea and one at the back looking at the neighborhood).
Colour-blocked walls painted in flamingo pink, azure blue and pastel green define the different areas of this seaside apartment in Greece, by architect Stamatios Giannikis.
Waterfront Nikis Apartment is located in a listed art-deco building from 1937, in the city of Thessaloniki. Giannikis uses the apartment as a base for his cultural organisation, Architecture In Residence, which hosts dinners, lectures, exhibitions, meetings and shows focused on architecture and design.
Spanning 120 square metres, the three-bedroom apartment comprises a living room that overlooks the sea, a dining room, a shower room, a WC, a storage room, a kitchen and two balconies – one at the front overlooking the sea and one at the back with a view to the street. While the layout of the apartment was not changed during the renovation, Giannikis fitted an entirely new kitchen, shower room and WC with new flooring and sanitary fittings. Original art-deco fittings – such as the flooring, the solid wood door and window frames, and the ornate plaster details on the ceiling – are all retained and refurbished.
“The intention of the renovation was to design a space that feels like home,” Giannikis told us. “Contrast as a design approach was introduced in order to bring together these existing fittings with the new amenities.”
Clean-lined pastel green kitchen cabinetry was installed to create a sharp contrast with the apartment’s original geometric red and black cement tile flooring, while 1950s glass and bronze bedside light fixtures are placed next to Leaf chairs by contemporary furniture brand Arper.
Giannikis chose three bold colours to organise the space. Flamingo pink is used in spaces that overlook the sea, azure blue is used in spaces that have views out across the neighbourhood and the pastel green shade is used in the apartment’s wet spaces such as the kitchen, shower room and the WC.
“The use of bold color in the design of Waterfront Nikis Apartment is done in an effort to complement and strengthen the power of the sea view, not to suppress it,” explains Giannikis.
“Pastel green is used to create serenity in the functional spaces, azure blue is used to convey a sea ambiance deep inside the apartment and flamingo pink is used to frame the actual azure blue of the Mediterranean Sea.”
In addition, to allow for flexibility, light, stackable and foldable furniture in the apartment can be used in various setups and can be easily disassembled and stored when not in use.
“The feeling of homeliness that the design was pursuing had to avoid compromises in the ability of the apartment to host the range of activities,” explains Giannikis. “Flexibility in the design of the infrastructure was key to achieving this goal.”
