‘Mask House’ is located in Palaio Psychiko Athens. Project has been published and selected for ‘BEST OF HOUSES’ by Ili&Ktirio magazine. Existing building shell expands vertically and is transformed to a contemporary housing residence. The house is organized in two levels: its living public spaces on the first level, with access to the pool of the backyard and all private spaces on the second level, with view both to the pool and the entry of the lot. Two thematic entities organize life inside the Mask House and at the same time separate the interior from the exterior: The Atrium and the Mask. The Atrium is expressed as a slot on the roof, dividing the old from the new building volume, allowing for a vertical movement through wooden hovering staircase steps inside a physically illuminated void-space of 6,5 meters high. Movement and hovering in space through this vertical promenade of the Atrium allows for an intense daily spatial experience for the owner of the house. At the exterior, the shell of the building is covered with a ‘Mask’ –a skin of the building – which is in a strong dialogue with the exterior skin of the outer wall yard of the lot, organizing the in-between garden area. The skin performs as a continuous surface that dissolves to a series of vertical louvers, as if it gets dissolved. The same strategy is followed at the skin of the outer wall yard. The construction method of this outer ‘Mask’ skin is an advanced digital design application that follows a unique technological construction method: it is a surface of double curvature constructed through digital CNC milling 5-axis machine, covered with an outer layer of rust metal. This led to a topological rusty metal surface of double curvature, which is a pioneering experimental construction.
