In their latest design project, Greek architecture firm Point Supreme highlighted a hidden light shaft in the middle of an apartment to set the stage for more brilliance and color all throughout the space.

Known for their bold use of hues and shapes, Point Supreme brought new life to the tired interior of the Trikoupi apartment, located in the center of Athens in one of the city’s many “polykatoikia,” or Greek multi-family units. With its three bedrooms, the space was roomy enough, but it lacked energy, texture, and color. Point Supreme brought plenty of all three.

The renovation began with gutting the living areas to produce a single open-plan flow. The team made the existing light shaft in the middle a focal feature by installing large windows on all four sides, welcoming in more daytime glow and fashioning a clear view across the space.

With this change, “an abundance of natural light and cross views through the whole depth of the apartment are revealed and create an unexpected sense of grand dimension. This is strengthened by the rich variety of materials and finishes applied that create different atmospheres,” the architects explain in their brief for the project.

Point Supreme was co-founded by Konstantinos Pantazis and Marianna Rentzo. Both designers began their architectural studies at the National Technical University Athens before parting ways, Pantazi heading to The Berlage Institute Rotterdam and Rentzo to Bartlett School of Architecture in London. After each taking different positions around the world, they reunited in Rotterdam to form their company in 2008 but have since returned to their roots in Athens. The pair’s work is multi-faceted, incorporating not only architecture, but urbanism, landscape, and research.

Their philosophy is guided by a quote on their website from French writer and poet André Breton: “Everything leads us to believe that there exists a certain point in the mind at which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low, construction and destruction, cease to be perceived in terms of contradiction. Surrealist activity, therefore, would be searched in vain for any other motive than the hope of determining this point.”

The exploration of those contradictions is evident in their use of contrast, pattern, and texture in the Trikoupi apartment. The petite kitchen’s cabinets are covered in light and dark shades of mauve, accented by a neutral marble top. The miniature taupe floor tiles in the kitchen offer a dichotomy of parquet and traditional pattern wood flooring.

Opposite the kitchen’s fire-engine red table is a wall of green-stained cabinets and shelves, bisecting a tucked-in bench and an extending teal sofa.

The entry is defined by a negative space timber screen and a shiny crimson floor rimmed with monochromatic triangles.

The bedroom is the most subdued room in the unit, with a wall of blond cabinets balancing the mass of the bed.

Cobalt blue storage lines the hallway leading to the bathroom, which is itself covered in a wave of mini square white tiles.

Point Supreme also crafted several custom pieces of furniture and built-ins around the home to accommodate seating, storage, and dining. The Trikoupi apartment is the most recent in a long list of projects from the firm known for pushing the envelope of aesthetic contradiction.