Renovations and Restorations

The office of Nikolaos Tzortzatos undertakes design, permitting and supervision of renovation and restoration for houses and commercial premises throughout Greece. We are not contractors and we do not publish prices for works. The instruction is architectural: what changes in the space, what is allowed, which permit or approval is required, and how it is carried out.

What a renovation includes

A renovation starts from the existing building, not from a list of materials. The plan, the load-bearing structure, the services and the uses are recorded. From that comes a proposal for layout, lighting and materials that respects the permit, the planning rules and, where it exists, the character of the building.

The study sets what is demolished, what remains, where openings move and how rooms are divided. The permit or approval places the works in the electronic permitting system. Supervision checks that execution follows the study. Those three are renovation from the architect’s side — not the supply of crews.

In a flat the work is often limited to the property: layout, joinery, plumbing, electrics, finishes. In a house or a commercial premises it may also include the envelope, the roof, access, or a change to the coverage diagram. The site inspection shows the extent, not a general description.

When a permit or a small-scale works approval is required

Not all works go through the same file. Indicatively, internal rearrangements that do not touch the load-bearing structure, replacement of frames, finishes and certain pergolas or ground works may fall under a small-scale works approval. An addition of floor area, an intervention in the structure, a change of use, or works that alter the coverage diagram as a rule require a building permit.

The owner does not decide the threshold from a list on the internet. It is decided from the building’s permit, the rules in force and exactly what will be done. That is why recording precedes the proposal. Detail on building permits, small-scale approval and Electronic Building Identity is on the building permits page.

Restoration of older buildings

Restoration is not a renovation with old joinery. It is work on a building that already has a construction history: load-bearing elements, floors, roof, renders, and often successive unauthorized additions. Since 1976 the office has worked on such buildings — houses and commercial premises — with the first task to see what carries load and what is only finish.

The proposal keeps what can be kept and replaces what has failed, without adding volume that the permit and the rules do not allow. Where the building is under a protection regime, the file follows the approvals the law requires; we do not decide that in the study. Restoration almost always involves a check for unauthorized work: what was added without a permit is not lost because it will be painted.

The procedure

The order is fixed. A step is skipped only when the property is already fully recorded and without pending matters.

1. Recording and site inspection: plan, photographs, permit, titles, visible deviations.
2. Proposal: layout options, limits of intervention, what needs a permit or approval.
3. Final study and permit file, where required.
4. Supervision during execution, against the approved drawings.
5. Handover: a check that the work closes as studied.

If a structural or M&E engineer is needed, they come in after the recording, once the extent of the intervention is clear. The office does not prescribe a contractor.

Unauthorized buildings and renovation

A pending unauthorized construction or change of use blocks the file and the transaction. There is no point designing a kitchen or an extension on space that has not been included. Legalization of unauthorized buildings comes first: inspection, classification, inclusion in the TEE system where allowed. After that the renovation proceeds on a declared condition.

If the unauthorized work cannot be included (indicatively category 5, or construction after 28 July 2011), the renovation does not cover it. It is examined separately whether it can be removed, left out, or — where the rules allow — given a permit. The deadline for inclusion of categories 1–4 is 31 March 2028 (ν. 4495/2017 → ν. 5306/2026).

Throughout Greece

The seat is at 5 Lalechou Street, 3rd floor, Neo Psychiko 15451; renovation design and supervision are carried out throughout Greece.

Since 1976 the office has about 343 projects. The procedure is the same whether the property is a flat in Athens or a house elsewhere.

For a first conversation, with no obligation: Nikolaos Tzortzatos — Architect · 5 Lalechou Street, 3rd floor, Neo Psychiko 15451 · +30 210 6716237.