This round-plan project concerned a high-rise residential building with the unprecedented – for the area of Athens – height of 110 meters. A two-storey ring base was designed around a broad internal atrium and a central reception hall, with shops, recreation halls and underground parking space. The storeys containing the large apartments followed, while on the last floor of the tower this semi-public character was redefined by a restaurant and a large open-air swimming pool.
The main part of the building, in particular, conceived predominantly of white concrete, grew organically around a vertical quadruplex circulation core. The demand for large balconies with open-air swimming pools and semi-open-air spaces on the perimeter of the storeys set the structural parameters for the section of the building. Every apartment occupied a quarter of the round plan, taking advantage of the free view, while the private swimming pool of each apartment was supported on the rear side of the apartment below. This caused the alternate transposition, floor by floor, of the balcony-swimming pool, the whole and the void, on the cylindrical skin of the living rooms. The overall outcome led to a pulsating building envelope created by the open petals of the balconies.
