The project concerns the design and the realization of radical interventions on the surrounding space of an existing house, in between high buildings, inside the urban tissue. The design concept was the relation between built and natural environment and the process to gain larger areas for planting, with the provision for its use from children, and with the minimum possible coverage with hard floors.

The open air space that surrounded the building was fragmented by material and planting, that of the one part couldn’t cover the new users’ needs, of the other part they were almost ruined due to time and abandonment.

The starting point for the design decisions was the micro climate of the specific lot, as due to its location, the duration of sunlight is very limited, which combines with high levels of humidity throughout the year and heavy winters.

Additionally, the organization of uses is being redefined with an aim to create new spatial functional zones, which will respond to the new requirements. Interventions also took place on the building’s facades, new points and paths of access were introduced, and the open air space is being visually defined in terms of privacy related to the adjacent buildings. The lighting design highlighted points of interest and at the same time reassured a smooth luminosity across the lot, so as to be able to safely host activities during the whole day.

In all the levels of design and vegetation planning, a casic parameter was the use of space from children, therefore, the criteria were base on the safety, the materials resilience, the mobility, the variety of textures, the species of the plants and the scale of the constructions, in order to form a safe and sense stimulating background for different kinds of play. A central axis of the design approach was the relation and interaction between open air and semi open space of the house, through the handling of their limit, so as to achieve a gradual transition, coherent to the various aspects of the mediterranean climate.

The planting design was based on the resilience at the adverse weather conditions, combined with the almost permanent shadow of the area. The alternation of evergreen and deciduous varieties of indigenous plants, as well as the low requirements of maintenance and sustainability of the plant stock, led to the creation of a micro landscape, adapted to the local climate.