Designed by Omni View Design, One Kleomenous was created based on cutting-edge design, construction techniques, and technologies.
An architect's greatest responsibility is to design buildings that are harmoniously integrated with their surroundings, whether natural or artificial. Therefore, when the environment is natural, the building should not be designed with artificial materials that do not sit well with the native matter of the fields and soil, nor should it interrupt the natural beauty with harsh forms and obstructed views. However, when the surrounding environment is urban, the building should embrace the modernity of contemporary materials and forms, respecting the societal aesthetics. In other words, what happens when a building is constructed on the threshold between a city building and an unbuilt one? The building should be contemporary enough to be a city building, but more importantly, it must be blended harmoniously with the adjacent untouched land. This is exactly the case with Kleomenous building.
Investors and architects were driven by admiration for the beautiful peak of Lycabettus and were motivated to design an innovative architectural typology. The hybrid aesthetic issue mentioned above was addressed through two main trajectories: design language and material choices. The team carefully examined the building's positioning, orientation, and functions to develop strategies for the facade. Based on references from other buildings in the city, one of the most popular materials in the city, smooth plaster, was used. On the forest edge of the plot, the bulky volumes of the balconies, nearly touched by the trees of the forest and the fields, had to be geometrically manipulated to align with the flowing forms of the hill. Additionally, the southern side of the building needed a cladding system to filter direct sunlight and ensure the building's energy-efficient operation.
"While researching elements related to Lycabettus for inspiration, an old topographic map of the hill caught our attention. The natural aesthetics of the contour lines on the topographic map became the source of our architectural metaphor; by assigning natural transition volumes between the blocky balcony forms, we digitally created a facade landscape. We then sliced the cladding system into many sections during the creation of the system. We didn't add extra volume to the building but combined the existing elements to create a natural-looking geometry."
The choice of Travertino marble was necessary to match the characteristic beige stone color of the retaining walls of the entire Lycabettus area. Marble is a stone in itself, but it offers greater flexibility in its manipulation. Travertino is an excellent match in terms of color and, due to its porous structure, conveys a natural feel very strongly. Moreover, it is a material that was highly popular for the development of 70's modernist style apartment buildings. The material was also used in the adjacent building, linking the design to the urban fabric.
The interior color was carefully chosen to match the color of the earth. Glass railings were selected to be highly reflective, capturing the image of the sky and surrounding trees. Overall, the material palette of the entire building was designed to express the inherent aesthetic understanding of the native landscape of Attica: earth, stone, and sky. The natural continuation of the city's unified volume is almost imperceptibly blended with the adjacent untouched land, with the transition flowing seamlessly.
