Architect Nikolas Makrygiannis founded Demarrage Studio in 2020 with the ambition of creating an architecture that is socially conscious and affordable to a wider audience while simplifying the construction logic of spaces, buildings, and objects. Six years later, he designed his own home–studio in an apartment overlooking Solonos Street in Exarcheia, Athens, artfully balancing the industrial atmosphere of a working laboratory with the intimate qualities of home. Exemplifying a modular architecture of assembly and change that embraces patchwork aesthetics, irregularity, and incompleteness, the project frames space as a living ecosystem open to continuous adaptation.
If there had to be one phrase to describe this architect’s home–office, it would be Thoreau’s affirmation that “all beautiful things are wild and free.” Suspended between living and working, the composition unfolds as a self-authored field of experimentation built to evolve, reflecting, remarkably, the way ideas are tested and architecture takes form, moving from paper and digital drawings into the built world.
“Modern living needs and budget restrictions create complex conditions that can be very challenging for young professionals to deal with. With this in mind, the objective was to create a space with a strong, distinctive character and maximum practicality that would fulfil all the needs of working and living,” says the architect.
The Domestic Potential of Industrial Elements: Towards an Architecture of Honest Materiality
The pursuit of the “truth” that simple industrial elements can reveal when applied to domestic rather than commercial spaces lies at the heart of Demarrage Studio’s architectural approach. It is therefore no coincidence that the studio’s home–office is situated within a building originally designed to house an educational institution, distinguished by its simple architecture, subtly industrial character, and façade articulated by pronounced vertical aluminium fins that create a lattice organising both the building’s volume and the expression of each floor. Occupying a former lawyer’s office with a narrow floor plan, the apartment extends across the entire floor, benefiting from the building’s full street façade.
“The apartment was conceived primarily as a workspace and secondarily as a home,” explains Nikolas. “This resulted in a space with a distinct workshop atmosphere.”
Within an open-plan layout almost entirely devoid of interior walls, a suspended perforated steel framework accommodating the electrical infrastructure and organising the wiring largely defines the programme. Creating a floating grid that visually enlarges the apartment while reinforcing its workshop character, it gives the strong impression that this is a space where dreams are shaped, tested, and conceived.
Patchwork Aesthetics: Coexistence of Uses, Materials, and Things
Rather than emphasising a seamless whole, Demarrage home–studio emerges through the relationships between discrete components, allowing each element to retain its identity while contributing to a larger spatial order. A living room, a dining–working area, an office, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchenette blend into one another through furniture acting as “soft barriers” that subtly distinguish one use from another.
Located beside the main entrance and parallel to the balcony, the kitchen and bathroom function together as the house’s metabolic core, facing the office and working table that operate simultaneously, both independently and in dialogue, accommodating different modes of working—privately or collectively—and different forms of practice, from digital drawing and sketching to painting and even model making.
On the opposite side of the apartment, the living room remains low and informal, ready to host meetings, gatherings, or brainstorming sessions.
The bedroom, the only secluded part of the composition, is the one space the architect reserved for himself: a private retreat with a window, a bookshelf, and a wardrobe opening and closing behind a striped cotton curtain.
“This idea of a ‘clear’ studio space with constant, unobtrusive circulation was enhanced by the low height of the furniture, which outlined the limits of each area within the apartment. This gesture also emphasised the connection between the exterior and interior. When seated in the living room or the working/dining area, there is a visual connection with the outdoors, particularly towards the north-east side leading to the terrace. The space was conceived and designed so that people could work and relax within the same areas simultaneously without imposing on one another,” says Nikolas.
A simple, affordable, hybrid, and highly distinctive material palette defines and enhances the patchwork aesthetics of the project. Metallic elements, galvanised steel, various types of wood, and wired glass coexist with striking red details, custom-made furniture, lighting elements, and classic design pieces such as the Flos Mayday Table Lamp. Artworks ranging from paintings to ceramic sculptures, together with a vast collection of objects—from personal memorabilia and books to office supplies and equipment—give the space its unique personality and memorable aura.
A Modular, Dismantlable Design That Embraces Impermanence
At the core of Demarrage Home–Studio lies a modular design system that can be dismantled and rearranged, reflecting through adaptability and reconfiguration the acceptance that architecture is never entirely finished.
“Economy in making was always in mind,” says Nikolas. “Since the floor plan was open in the first place, the vision of a space that could be transformed over the years, depending on the needs of its occupants, was taken into account. The materials that were used and the way they were worked ensured that potential changes could take place in the future.”
Irregularity, impermanence, and composition through independent parts, combined with accumulation and asymmetry, give the space a contemplative quality where traces of time and use support a design ethic in which repair becomes part of the space’s identity.
Traditional Knowledge, Contemporary Innovation
For Demarrage, revitalising traditional building practices that have been abandoned in favour of faster and easier construction methods is crucial for reintroducing into contemporary construction culture a naturally ecological way of making—one that ensures resilience and sustainability.
“Combined with modern technology, these past methods, such as rammed earth, natural stone, and timber with mud, ensure optimum results in the fragile environment that we live in. Reintroducing them into the contemporary architectural field is something we aim to apply to our work as well,” explains Nikolas.
In his home–studio design, the principles of modularity, adaptability, and reconfiguration evoke vernacular interior arrangements that evolve according to seasons, rituals, and changing domestic needs.
A Suspended Urban Garden for the Wicked
Supporting principles of passive cooling and ventilation that can prove highly environmental and cost-effective even within the most demanding urban conditions, the design study focused particularly on the relationship between the interior and exterior areas of the apartment—the living space and the terrace.
“In order to maintain a continuous connection with the outdoors, the view from the interior had to remain unobstructed. Therefore, when designing the sun shutters, their minimal visual impact became the primary objective. This resulted in a system of retractable sliding perforated shutters that give a dynamic expression to the façade while creating a constant play of light and shadow depending on the time of day,” state the architect.
Lastly, the “suspended garden” placed along the apartment’s façade facing Solonos Street was conceived to accommodate as many plants as possible, becoming a buffer zone against street noise, pollution, and temperature fluctuations. This “green wall” plays an important role in everyday life as a regulating element for air quality within an area where atmospheric pollution remains a predominant urban condition.
Reuse, Repair, Respect
Showcasing the studio’s broader design ethic, Demarrage Home–Studio recognises the simplicity and substance that industrial materials and aesthetics can bring to space, celebrating modular design, affordability, and reuse as a vital design language that remains in constant evolution.
Since “love is the beginning and the end for everything,” as Albert Camus pointed out, an additional layer of passion and attention is brought by the studio to the field of product design, understood as an integral extension of architecture. This approach has led to a series of experiments that, in turn, have given rise to a constantly evolving collection of furniture pieces.
Just as Nikolas’ home–studio demonstrates, affordable materials and experimentation become essential tools in exploring how living shapes materials, objects, and ultimately the spaces we inhabit.
By privileging transformation over permanence and difference over uniformity, Demarrage articulates an architecture of craftsmanship and truth, where messiness and uncertainty are not concealed but instead rendered visible and thoughtfully expressed—allowing change to unfold and transformation to become an intrinsic part of the architectural experience.
Facts & Credits
Project title Demarrage Home-Studio
Typology Apartment Renovation, Residential, Workspace
Location Exarcheia, Athens
Status Completed, 2026
Architecture Demarrage
Wood works nokogiri studio
Metal works Karouzakis metal works
Photography Léa Martin