The house in Lampes is a summer retreat on the shores of the Ionian Sea, a few meters above the coastline and sand dunes.

The main design challenge of the project was the existence of a pre-approved permit for a commercial building that could not be revoked. Adapting the new residential program to this framework became a field of critical reinterpretation: how could a commercial structure be redefined to create an experience of summer dwelling? The project was approached as the transformation of a building that never truly existed, turning the legal constraint into an imaginative process of redesign.

The interventions went beyond technical modifications, such as the reconfiguration of openings, height, and cours anglaises, and acted as tools of a new narrative. The exterior wall and the metal pergola with sliding panels redefined the building’s boundaries, introducing spatial transitions from public to private, from enclosed to open. The house emerges as a “dense core” framed by lighter structures, following the typology of local architecture: a linear sequence of three spaces with symmetrical openings, gradually shifting from communal to intimate.

Materiality, limited to plaster with local sand and oak wood, emphasizes the clarity of geometry and continuity with the natural landscape. The surrounding terrain was left undesigned, allowing the wild dune vegetation to regenerate freely. Therefore, the project not only responds to a design constraint but transforms a fixed typology into an experience of dwelling that embodies simplicity, critical reflection, and dialogue with the landscape.