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Inhabiting Life

In the past, the HOME was seen as a family center of patriarchal glory.
The evolutionary processes of capitalism and the values of contemporary life, through
social relations and the conditions that create an imaginary, ephemeral "ego,"
have transformed the home into an inhabited theatrical stage where the actors
are the inhabitants and the audience is the visitors.
It is the latter who perceive every sign of liveliness or incongruity, of fertile imagination
or resignation. They notice all indications of financial status as well as the cultural
pursuits of each inhabitant of the house.
The home may be considered as the inhabited core, an entity that reflects the tortured
pathology of human existence.
The STUDIO is the functional workshop that puts the house together. It is where
spatial organization, abstraction, strict precision, study, creativity, and work
are the inseparable and extreme protagonists in an active thinking and a practical
philosophy of life. The residents engage in a conceptually metaphysical relationship
with space, which leads to the emergence of a series of 'internal' structures.
The SHOWROOM is the realm of images, the reward of the gaze. It comprises
a single space that specifies the choices and the preliminary design. It determines
and judges the financial structure of creativity and its initial quests.
The OFFICE is the base of technology. It is the marriage between man
and technology. It is where every sentiment is imprisoned; the place where
technology becomes the greatest shackle of enslavement; its structure grows
and a popular verdict is enforced. The office is the 'gatekeeper' of material wealth.
The FACTORY is the place of production, where collective effort is combined. It hosts
the forms of capitalist practice, promotes creative skills and extends
the characteristics of information. At the factory the idea is processed
and implemented into a tangible form.
In these five spaces Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou inhabit life.
"THE ACTUAL HOUSING CRISIS IS NOT THE SCARCITY OF ACCOMMODATION...
IT LIES IN THE FACT THAT MORTALS ALWAYS SEEK THE ESSENCE
OF HABITATION, AND THEY FIRST OF ALL HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO INHABIT"
(Martin Heidegger)
Nikos Zouboulis was born in Athens and comes from an artistic family. His father
and his grandfather before him were famous makers of houses and furniture
in the small village of Argalasti on Mount Pelion and later in Athens.
Nikos studied interior design at the Doxiades School in Athens, with parallel studies
in sculpture. From early on he specialized in interior design. He won his first award
for sculpture at the age of 18, with a latex-made portrait at the Gallery of the Athens
Hilton. Around that same time he produced his first sculpture-object, a strange table
made of different plastics.
At the Doxiades School he met Titsa Grekou, a talented artist who in 1975 became
his tireless wife and fellow-traveler on their creative journey in art.
In 1983 they co-founded STUDIO METAPLASI, a brand of original designs, furniture
and sculptural objects reflecting a refined approach to decoration. Their Inspired
creations made from plastic materials with phantasmagoric forms and colors were
the first and only example in Greece of a personal post-modern style.
Their showroom in the upscale Kolonaki district of Athens became the showcase
of avant-garde design in Greece.
That was the beginning of a course to success that had Niko Zouboulis
and Titsa Grekou traveling to many countries around the world. Boston and Chicago
were among the places where they made their artistic presence felt.
Their Home, Showroom, Factory and Office soon became the points of reference