Bookshelves ended up being hallmark backgrounds throughout the pandemic when students and academics were abandoned into the virtual realm for lectures. Receding into the flat space of digital grids, these libraries typically served more as wallpaper for the person gesticulating in front. But what if a bookcase was the vital parti of a home, rather than a surface area or addition? This is the concept that Archiwave Architects– led by Dimitris Ntoupas and Anna Konstantopoulou– embodied in The Green Box, a 115-square-meter renovation job in Chalandri, Greece, that changes a previous office into a modern home for a young couple.
Inspired by the client’s profession as a teacher, the residence’s style centers on a custom-designed bookcase– the
titular”Green Box”– which ends up being the spatial and conceptual core of the home. Beyond serving as a library, the volume includes storage closets while subtly defining the boundary between personal and shared zones. The shelves are the focal point of the intense, open-concept living location, while the zone behind includes the 3 bed rooms. Inside the main bed room, natural light streams in from the living area through a tactical opening above the bookcase. Complementing the stiff, balanced lines of the bookcase is a curved white wall at the entrance.
Lit subtly from a recessed opening along the ceiling, this crucial style component invites visitors and guides them to the private zone, softening the transition from the open living space. The cooking area adjacent to the living area is developed from oak to balance the earthy greens of the library. A perforated screen real estate kitchen area tools, set into the millwork, nods to the bookcase’s orderly grid, while a marble island offers the essential contrast to different domestic activities without compromising the home’s airy feel. The bookcase itself checks out as sculptural line work that wraps the entire wall and corner, with openings that expand and contract in between horizontals and verticals to accommodate an ever-evolving collection of things and homewares.
Lively pops of color– the exact same cool green as the bookcase– bring character to door trims and furniture, connecting it all back to The Green Box. Archiwave Architects have reframed the library not simply as an item or backdrop, but as a vessel for everyday living. To see this and other works by the
firm, check out archiwavearchitects.com. Photography by Piyi Wong.
Bianca Weeko Martin is an author and researcher weaving together architectural practice with theory and individual narrative. She is the author of the sold out Architectural Guide Manila.