About the Founder
Konstantinos Stathopoulos is an experienced Greek Architect and has participated in numerous workshops specifically oriented in traditional building techniques. In addition, he was working occasionally as a concept designer, scenographer assistant, and muralist. In the period 2015-2017 he was a collaborator architect of AD architects, leaving his mark on the concept of projects such as the “lap pool house,” “casa Leone,” and “touch of new.”
The last couple of years he expresses his personal writing by founding KRAK. Architects. His project “Casa Odyssia,” has gained attention and was selected amongst the best designs for the 10th Biennale of Young Greek Architects. The game of shaping the environment, solving problems, and creation is what still keeps him motivated and enthusiastic for Architecture.
It's about respecting the site, understanding the local climate, and working with materials that age gracefully.
Interview
Your project “Casa Odyssia” has gained significant attention.
What is KRAK. Architects’ architectural philosophy?
Casa Odyssia aims to host its user, as a modern Odysseus, like the rocks that emerge from the wild landscape, like an “anchorage,” is a station of rest, meditation, hospitality, a rescue “raft” from the urban life. It aspires the user in the search of his own Ithaca … only then, the concrete blocks, are transformed into a home with spatial qualities, with reason, and with dreams.
I believe in creating spaces that are deeply connected to their context and emotionally resonant. Architecture, for me, is not just about form and function it’s about storytelling, I grew up with an archeologist father, his myths were my fairy tales and were always a database of inspiration, most of my designs don’t start there but they get filtered with this conceptual tool afterward, it’s an intellectual act, that provides, more depth in the process, a way of honoring the past while offering something new.
The human expression has multiple means and forms.
How has your approach to sustainability evolved, and how do you incorporate it into your projects today?
Over time, I’ve come to realize that true sustainability is rooted more in locality than in purely technical solutions. Not every seed can flourish in the same soil; it’s about respecting the site, understanding the local climate, and working with materials that age gracefully.
Another aspect that is often overlooked is “beauty,” a building lives more than us so if the next generations don’t want to demolish it, is more sustainable than an “ugly” one that meets certain standards on paper. Aesthetics, in their way, become a vital measure of sustainability, a sustainable parameter.
I strive to design buildings that are not only efficient but also timeless. Whether it’s through harnessing natural light and ventilation, using locally sourced materials, or integrating the building into its natural surroundings, sustainability, to me, is about creating long-term resilience and fostering a harmonious relationship with nature. It’s a truly holistic approach.
Each building has its own identity, and its own rhythm, and these other disciplines help me to create spaces that feel alive, where every surface and shadow can evoke a response.
How do these diverse experiences influence your architectural practice and creative process?
From what I can recall, they have asked Godard, the French director, about what makes a great filmmaker? he said, in order to do good movies, you need to not study only cinema. The human expression has multiple means and forms, you need to have interest in other things as well. I see architecture as a broader intellectual pursuit rather than just a technical or isolated craft.
At KRAK. We focus on creating spaces that are pure in form and rich in meaning.
These diverse experiences have been integral to my evolution as an architect. Understanding how ancient and traditional structures were built without modern technology helped me to approach architecture with a sense of respect for the past while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible today. Traditional building techniques help you understand accumulated and proven knowledge from the past. Ideally, we should build with materials from beneath our feet, embracing what the earth naturally provides. I hope that advancements in material science will bring us closer to that ideal in the future.
Each building has its own identity, and its own rhythm, and these other disciplines help me to create spaces that feel alive, where every surface and shadow can evoke a response. Ultimately, architecture is a human expression a way for us humans to leave our sign here, I see architecture as a multidimensional canvas, and these diverse experiences enrich the synthesis of each project.
What vision did you have for the firm, and how do you aim to differentiate it from other architectural practices?
Founding KRAK. wasn’t an idea but a necessity, in order to express my ideas on paper I needed the freedom of having my own practice. Architecture can sometimes feel detached from its surroundings, I was “angry” by the general practice of seeing copy paste buildings that felt irrelevant to their context, but more, I was “hungry” to design, dream, and sculpt, spaces that are relevant and primarily dialectic, not mimetic.
The conventional can be rigid and hard but just like the flower grows from the crack of a rock, also our bold and authentic identity stands apart, by embracing the cracks in the rigid environments. In order to be authentic you need to have something to say and be bold enough to do it without fear no matter what, van Gogh sold one painting in his life and Zaha Hadid waited 15 years before her first design was realized.
I strive to design buildings that are not only efficient but also timeless.
My belief is that in order to produce art and architecture with true identity you need to have interesting character, by pursuing life experiences; life itself; and connection with others; this is the fuel that gives shape to art. It’s an intriguing question, if a person who has never played in a square, is able to design one?
At KRAK. We focus on creating spaces that are pure in form and rich in meaning. It’s about designing buildings that are in tune with nature and place the human soul at the center, buildings that are not only efficient and beautiful but also emotionally and culturally resonant. Our aim is, for the buildings to belong, both to the people who inhabit them and to the landscapes from which they arise.
