As workshops go, we'd say this is pretty much up there.

It's a project by Greek architecture firm A31, who nestled the structure amongst the olive, oleander and cypress trees within a 4000 square metre plot - the home of painter and sculptor Alexandros Liapis.

Lucky Liapis now walks a few metres from his dwelling to this new studio space to work in Dilesi, Boeotia - the ancient Delion - and we're kind of green with envy.

The basic criteria of the new structure’s synthesis were the economy of its realization means, construction honesty and discipline, plasticity which would converse with the spirit of the Greek landscape; and the resulting new structure is a shell comprised of fair-faced reinforced concrete, completed in three separate phases.

The dome, a timeless and interregional architectural coronation element spanning from antiquity to Modernism, interacts with the intimate space of the artist’s house, the “cell”. The new structure is located in the north-south axis, while the orthogonal plan view is divided into three zones.

Firstly, the cantilever with the balcony in the south, where the entrance is situated, secondly, the artist’s workspace and finally the attic in the north which serves as a storage space.

A straight staircase connects the two levels, while the cantilevered concrete steps can serve as exhibition stands for the artist’s work. The wall openings, which relate to the Sun’s trajectory, the interior lighting and the ventilation, stem from transverse horizontal sections in the building shell.

The sliced concrete blocks that were removed now function as benches for people and pedestals for sculptures.

Photography Yiannis Hadjiaslanis.