Georges Batzios Architects

Giorgos Batzios is an architect based in Athens. After studying at the ÉNS d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais, he worked for five years at Ateliers Jean Nouvel in Paris and New York, followed by a period in London at David Chipperfield’s office. Returning to Greece in 2011, he collaborated with AETER–Harry Bougadellis and SPARCH (Rena Sakellaridou – Morfo Papanikolaou) before founding Georges Batzios Architects. He has been awarded in many architectural competitions, and his work spans multiple scales, from interior design to buildings of complex requirements and urban design.

S.M.: You have worked in many architectural firms with recognizable styles, yet you explicitly refuse to commit yourself to a single “image.” Where is the boundary between designing on the basis of principles and building a corporate identity (brand) as an architect? Given that Jean Nouvel’s office, where you collaborated for many years, promotes a similar stance, is it fair to say that a brand is exhausted in its “image” or “style”?

G.B.: Architecture is not a commercial product; it is a vision to which the architect is called to give function, substance, and texture. Our identity self-destructs and is reborn with each personal experience of the user, at every given moment. Take, for example, the main reception area of the office building we just completed in Attica. The space changes throughout the day and across the seasons, through reflections and light. Colors alternate, shadows trace new lines and abstract scales. The sound of flowing water adds a fourth dimension to the architectural experience. The architectural vision becomes subject to the consciousness of the passerby.

We design intuitively and build on principles that stem from the relationships of the individual structural elements. In short, we are not concerned with the matter of brand as an end in itself. That said, one could argue that all of the above inevitably create a brand, in any case.

S.M.: What led you to return to Greece in 2011, and how were you able to make use of and enrich your experience?

G.B.: In 2011 I was supposed to move to Sydney for the construction of a Jean Nouvel building, after similar “missions” in Paris, London, and New York. However, I decided to return to Greece for specific reasons. First of all, architects of Jean Nouvel’s caliber have the ability to absorb their collaborators. After some years alongside such strong maestros, there is a real danger of losing the ability to compose your own music. In addition, after 17 years of a nomadic life, I was tired of these “missions” and was seeking a base where I could, on one hand, express myself freely without the constraints of major architectural offices, and on the other, make use of the experience I had gained through my involvement in large and complex projects. My return to Greece enriched my work with a filter of constructive modesty.

S.M.: You have collaborated on projects with many different architectural firms. What changes for you in the context of such a collaboration, and what remains the same? And does what remains constant carry over to an “individual” project (which is again a product of collaboration, in a different context)?

G.B.: Beauty is objective, function is scientific, intuition is always the same. Methodology changes and is reflected in the construction systems. In other words, the architect remains the same, but the engineer must adapt.

Read the full interview in ek issue 251 | October 2020.