Palímpsisto

Palímpsisto project is the restoration and extension of three buildings in the neighbourhood of Koukaki, Athens – a ruinous neoclassical home (Zacharitsa 34), a large former school building (Lazaion 6-8), and a three-storey modernist apartment block with adjoining garden and pavilion (Lazaion 3). Royffe Flynn is development manager on this project for the developer Molonglo.

The project takes its name from a palimpsest: a piece of writing material on which the original text sits below the new, its faint shapes either near-invisible or twisting amongst the forms of the younger characters. Facing one another across the thin street incline to the pine-green slopes of Filopappou Hill, the disparate architectural and cultural histories of each building will be brought together to make an interconnected whole – a place for the local community to congregate and collaborate, a place for people to work, return to, and make their home; a place where human stories will be written over and over again, one on top of the other.

The transformation of the buildings has been designed by the renowned British practice 6a Architects, with landscape design by Helli Pangalou. In Koukaki, the project has been delivered by local architects Betaplan. As with the restoration of a ruin, Palímpsisto hopes to protect and conserve these structures, preserving the original architecture with thoughtful design, modernising with a light touch. Molonglo want to advocate for the city – to support it in exploring opportunities in gentle, appropriate ways in keeping with its everyday rhythms and culture. The Palímpsisto buildings are a response to uniquely Athenian traditions: a counter to the spread of monocultural developments across the capital.