Famous Greek Architects: Aristides Dallas Architecture Studio

Aristides Dallas Architecture Studio is based in Athens and Tinos and was founded by Aristides Dallas. They focus on residential and hospitality projects all over Greece - mainly in the Aegean and Ionian islands and near Athens.

Aristides Dallas Architecture Team

Aristides Dallas’s team includes a full network of professional experts – engineers, material scientists, interior designers, stylists and artists. They always respect the green practices of sustainable architecture. The two offices in Athens and Tinos have been operating - expanding the character and scale of the projects - with a common philosophy. Working in these two environments means that each team gets its own inspiration. On one side, you have an urban landscape, and on the other, you have the natural environment.

Aristides Dallas Architecture Studio Philosophy

The team believes that each architectural project is a mix of aesthetics and function. They believe that more people than the architect should get credit for a successful project. Contractors, other engineers, project managers, construction workers and each individual client and their own vision, all matter. They try to bring the best out of everyone involved, and this teamwork creates optimal or sometimes even surprising results.

About Aristides Dallas

Buildings need to relate to the landscape and to the time and space around the structure. They need to belong not only to their owner, but also to the place and history. A few examples of this are a residence in Agia Paraskevi where the owner asked the architect to imagine as a lion, and also a hotel in Santorini – which is built like a traditional village on the island. Aristides was inspired by some of his past professors, who motivated him to go out and look for architecture in the street and the city. He was invited to take a walk in the districts of Athens, but also in foreign places to get a new perspective.

Interview with Aristides Dallas

What Makes Aristides Dallas Architecture Studio Unique?

“When I started working in Tinos, new projects started much differently compared to today. Architects were not the norm.” Dallas wanted to change this. “We wanted to be more creative in terms of design, and to reintroduce the significance of the architect's role in the design process. Being critical is indeed an integral part of the design process: “We need to think again and again about the solutions for the project. This means designing for the present critically, planning for the future responsibly, and respecting the history of the place.”

What is Unique About Your Construction Style?

We focus on the envelope of the building, so that natural light passes through. In general, the play between light and shadow holds key role in our design process”. By establishing the office, Aristides Dallas, marked the start of a continuous architectural research towards a timeless identity. When Dallas came to Tinos, he had to detach himself from the urban context he was used to, where he worked with urban buildings in Athens. While the office is based on the island of Tinos, draws inspiration from the traditional elements of the place, in an attempt to contribute in the contemporary architecture found there. “The learning process makes us unique. We want to do something appealing that also integrates into the local context.”

What is Your Hope for the Future of the Company?

The approach of the office is to prioritize delivering high-quality work and ensuring client satisfaction rather than heavily marketing every project. Focusing on the education and skill development of the team along with consistently improving the services for clients is a long-term strategy. For example, they had 75 active projects last year, but only a few of them are published on the website.  

What are Your Expectations for the Future of Architecture in Greece?

Aristides believes that “with great power comes great responsibility.” The role of the architect has been partially restored. “The challenge of new designers is to create a great relationship with the space around the home and respect the environment.”  With respect to the integrity of a functional and sustainable architecture, new methods and ways of approaching living issues are promoted, with the aim of offering a timeless life experience.

“Learning from the past respectfully, Design from the present critically, Shape the future responsibly ” Aristides Dallas Architects Phillosophy

Aristides Dallas Architecture Studio Projects

Villa V

This vacation residence is found in northwest Corfu. The building has three levels and an unobstructed sea view. The middle one hosts the common spaces. A pair of thick slabs in a 45 degree angle stand out from the landscape. Nature surrounds the Villa, with native olive trees on the roof of the upper level.

From the middle level of the entrance, one’s look will go through the living room and the kitchen, and reach the sea. The common spaces come together with a big terrace. Crossing the living room and the kitchen, the passage to the second pair of bedrooms is revealed. The home integrates in the landscape, being opposed to it at the same time.

A Touch of New

Inspired by the traditional architecture of the built stone dovecotes of Tinos as well as by the way that all additions were carried out according to height, the residence in Triantaros becomes noticed in two levels in a bipolar bond.

Having adopted the subtractive approach and sought for the minimum intervention possible in the overall landscape, the architectural proposal, contemporary yet critically traditional, consists of the harmonic integration of a cube made of fare face concrete hovering over the existing stone mass. Apart from a point of cessation at the external envelope, the horizontal opening which is formed between the existing old structure and the new one, also develops a transparent zone, provides plenty of natural light for the space and creates visual evasions. In this way, it manages to frame the view of the horizon.

The existing Tinian stone of the ground floor alternates with the fare face ochre plaster of the additions, in an attempt of getting a clear distinction between the old and the new. Therefore, the residence introduces a contemporary architectural vocabulary, in a harmonic mixture of the traditional and modernistic features of the Greek countryside.

Pnoēs Tinos

As a proud member of Design Hotels, Pnoes is the first design holiday destination on the island of Tinos, Cyclades. Designed as a cluster of villas with private pools and gardens, Pnoēs embodies the spirit of the place in its architecture and hospitality philosophy, aimed at relaxation and regeneration. The architecture of Pnoēs is a physical manifestation of the elements that define the island. Earth, wind and water, shape the composition and materiality, and enrich the experience of living.

Earth is expressed in cave-like habitats, conceptually carved out of the rock, defining an experience of utmost protection and intimacy. The subterranean bedroom spaces remain hidden and unexposed, as they subtly frame the scenery from the inside out, fostering an atmosphere of shade, privacy and introspection, warmed by earthy colours and tactile textures. Wind is symbolized by three white-washed cubic shapes gently placed above of the earth. As they float, protecting the most intimate spaces, the airy white cubes open up to the uncompromising landscape. In a play of voids and solids, wind travels through and redefines aesthetic perception.

Water surrounds the villas, creating reflections and softening the materiality of the forms. It sublimates the objects and the colours of land and sky, it provides serenity and introspection, it purifies and regenerates the senses.