Sofia Xanthakou is an Athens-based architect. She founded her own practice, Local Local in 2022 transforming buildings with a strong focus on the sensitivities of their particular context; each project zeroes in on cultural, social, and geographical nuances. Projects include residential and retail spaces alongside galleries. Melas Martinos in Athens is an early example Xanthakou says of her “less loud approach” to design while her current gallery project includes the restoration of a three-storey interwar building and an urban garden with views of the Acropolis. Furniture, such as the Parrot Chair created to celebrate the 101st anniversary of Greek deluxe furniture manufacturer, Sirigos, is also part of Xanthakou’s evolving oeuvre - with another similar project, in collaboration with Theodore Psychoyos, also in the pipeline.

Xanthakou, who has worked for several prestigious architectural firms in Athens, London and New York, completed her bachelor's degree at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture, worked in industry for a while before completing a Master’s in Design Studies at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where she focused on urbanism, landscape, and ecology. “The biggest takeaway from Pratt was that a design project is not just a task to be completed, it is a reflection of who you are, each project you have to make personal, care for it, own it,” she says. At Harvard, her focus was more on the theoretical side, critically examining what architecture and design might deliver. “Yes, we design beautiful things but can they be sustainable? Have impact?”

1. Do you have an early memory that you think connects to your creative path now?

From a very young age, I used to draw - my mother signed me up for an afternoon drawing classes. I was always quite a stressed student at school, but during art class I felt so free and calm. The arts were the space where I felt very safe and comfortable to express myself.

At the same time my grandmother - a widow who had moved from the United States to Greece - was a very big inspiration for me and taught me to be ambitious. When I was in middle school, around 12 years-old, she was designing an apartment with an architect and would show me the plans and ask my opinion. I think this opened up another world of being creative and doing artistic things, but things that seemed somehow concrete and real. My grandmother was very practical even if she was also dreaming about how she would furnish this apartment - where she would hang a painting or a put a couch. She was very specific with everything, drawing in front of me, and I think that was the first time I saw a person build a world for themselves creatively.

2. How would you explain your rituals, process and practise?

When I meet with a client, they tell me a bit about their brief, their vision, their ideas, and then I take that and put it to one the side, so I start as if I haven't heard anything, and can allow myself to be as creative as possible. Then I try to implement what they've told me into something that is both aesthetically and architecturally interesting, but also within the restraints that they have set out. These restraints are in the end important because you can design infinite solutions. I really like the interaction with the clients. I don't want my design to be compromised, but I don't want their desires to be compromised either.

Its also very important to understand the site, understand what's around it, understand the story behind the building or the land or the land around the building. How the sun moves, how the wind moves. What are the local qualities? I'm really interested in the locality of each place that we design things for. And then of course, the materiality is important. How we choose materials that feel as if they are in the right place, but also bring up something fresh and something new, and not just a copy of a past idea.

3. What does good design mean to you?

It's a difficult question, because it's very subjective, but I think good design means something that ultimately makes sense! It can be something very weird and something very random, but somehow all its parts feel that they make sense together; they fit. Craftsmanship, form and good materials are also important. It could be a chair where all the joints are beautifully intertwined, the wood smells good, the varnish is amazing and all of these things together make it unique.

As we live in an age where we see so many visuals, so many chairs, so many tables, so many pillows, so many buildings, [good design] has to be something that draws your attention, something that stands out from everything else, but for every person this is very different. For me, it might be a white wall, for someone else it might be a pink wall.

4. Whose work has been the biggest influence on you to date?

There are some architects that I admire. From Greece, I would say Dimitris Pikionis is a very strong influence. He was the architect that designed the path around the Parthenon and the Philopappou. The materials he used were very inspiring.

Atelier 66 is also a very interesting practise because they’re very modernist, but somehow connect a lot with the vernacular.

I was always inspired by the way Rem Koolhaas thinks and Luis Barragán is an amazing inspiration; the forms, the light. And Francesca Torzo has a very interesting practice too.

5. How would you define beauty?

Beauty is anything that makes you happy, I think. Anything that makes you smile, anything that catches your eye. Beauty can be watching a bee around a nice flower. It’s about things that light you up; it can be a stone on the beach, a building, anything.

When I am in Venice, I take photos of terrazzo floors - that’s beauty. Beauty is also very subjective. I like simple things and minimal aesthetics, I am not a maximalist, you can see that in my work, but you know, it doesn't have to do with style. It’s really how it makes you feel, not how it looks.