Yioti Mansion
Τίτλος
Τίτλος
Title

Yioti Mansion

Location

Ioannina, Greece

Type

Restoration and reuse

Date

2011

Status

Completed

Project Description:

The great dilemma of the twenty-year period 1980-2000 with regards to the restoration of historic buildings was the following: obsess over a sterile, museum-like preservation, or change the use and consequently change the functionality and influence, however imperceptibly, the form? The first case was accompanied by the (financial) indifference of the state, the disagreement of the owner and therefore led to the total disappearance of several historic monuments. The second case gave the possibility of utilization and (profitable) use of the property, stimulated the interest of the owner, maintained and preserved the monument. The restoration study for the mansion of Giotis had exactly this latter goal, saving from extinction an uninhabited rotten trunk, changing not the use (residence), but the functionality. It was transformed from a residence of one (a lord) into a residence for six students. The project succeeded. The monument was not only saved, but became a living cell of its neighborhood, while its restoration through the use of modern materials confirmed that there can be no bad materials, only bad ways of using them.