Plaini and Karahalios Architects

Plaini and Karahalios Architects is an Athens-based architectural office. It was founded in 2011 by Elisavet Plaini and Yiannis Karahalios, at a moment that coincided with the onset of the financial crisis. At first, they responded by gaining substantial experience in small-scale design, while gradually taking on increasingly complex building projects. Today, their working method reflects the distinctive characteristics of an entire generation of architects who harnessed the experiences of the crisis and transformed them into qualitative traits.

S.M.: You come from different educational backgrounds. How did your collaboration begin, and how did you combine your different experiences into something new? At what point do you feel your office acquired its own unified identity?

E.P.: We met at the Noukakis–Babalou office. I had worked in some offices after my studies in London, and Yiannis came straight after finishing his postgraduate degree in New York. We had the opportunity to work, within a creative and collegial atmosphere, on several interesting projects. The highlight was the international competition for the main axis of Beirut, which won first prize. When we later decided to work as freelancers, we remained friends and collaborators, eventually sharing a workspace and finally founding a unified office. We shared common views on design-related issues as well as on a broader outlook on things.

Our identity was shaped around our shared intention to seek solutions with the fewest possible means and with restraint, both in morphological and material expression. Gradually, this also found its visual codification, mainly through the exploration of boundaries.

S.M.: The founding of your office coincided with the financial crisis in Greece, which had significant effects on architectural activity, as for nearly a decade almost all new constructions stopped. How did you respond to these conditions, and what do you retain today as experience within a completely different landscape that now includes many larger building projects?

Y.K.: As with many of our colleagues, the main activity shifted to renovation and interior design. It’s interesting that as a field we turned to an area that lies at the edge of our discipline and for which, I believe, we didn’t even have the necessary educational background. However, this introspection helped us better understand space, materials, and construction, especially in relation to housing, which was at the center of the renovations. Now that we are returning to the typical object of architecture, the building, this apprenticeship in the interior of the apartment feels like a valuable acquisition.

S.M.: You have studied the typology of housing in detail, but your built or designed work in other types of buildings or spaces is less well known. Is this the result of specific circumstances or a conscious choice? Do you participate in architectural competitions, private or public?

Y.K.: It is the result of circumstances. It comes primarily as a continuation of our experience in apartment renovations. Now that our scope has broadened, it is logical that the direction of this expansion happens more within the housing field. In other typologies, such as leisure, commerce, or hospitality, the main demand is not so much functional resolution as communication or differentiation from competition.

There, our architectural language and approach often clash with the culture of experience and individual enjoyment. It’s a fragile balance, and there have been times when we failed to remain completely faithful to our principles. Regarding competitions, we participate selectively since the dedication, human effort, and material resources required for a complete submission form a difficult equation within the framework of independent practice. Competitions, although exhausting, are an opportunity to gain distance from things and are crucial for the office’s development. Through them, we have had the chance to gain experience in larger-scale projects, something particularly important during the crisis years.

Read the full interview in ek issue 270 | September 2022.