Profile

Led by Ilias Papageorgiou, PILA is an architecture studio based in Athens and New York that creates environments for culture, working, and living around the world.  We believe in architecture’s enduring character to create meaningful connections between people and their environment as a counterpoint to the speed of contemporary living. By reimagining existing ideas around program and function, physical spaces can offer new ways of experiencing the world.

PILA builds lasting spaces that adapt to future transformation while considering today’s opportunities and constraints. Drawing upon material and immaterial contexts, we approach the unique parameters of each project with openness and curiosity. Through a highly collaborative and iterative process, we translate each project’s opportunities and constraints into clear design directions that are sensitive to client and contextual needs.

PILA is currently engaged in the transformation of a historic industrial complex into a cultural center in Vosges, France; the design and construction of a multi-story artist studio in Harlem, New York; a mixed use urban transformation with co-living residences on the Paris river bank;  and a private house in a beautiful mountainous landscape on the island of Antiparos in Greece.

SERVICES

Masterplanning
Visioning
Feasibility study
Architectural design
Interior design
Retail design
Installation design
Exhibition design

CLIENTS

Oliaros Properties
REI Habitat
Icade Property Investment and Development
Nodi
Communauté de communes du Pays de Bitche
Ghada Amer
MINI / BMW
Versace

ilias papageorgiou

Ilias Papageorgiou is a Greek architect and founder of PILA. He brings extensive experience from Europe and America, having led the design and realization of high profile cultural, commercial and residential projects around the world. Prior to founding PILA, Ilias was a partner at SO-IL in New York, collaborating with clients including MINI/BMW, Versace, Google, AirBnB, Frieze Art Fair, Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis, the Guggenheim Museum, and the New Museum in New York.

Ilias’s work has been internationally recognized, having been awarded as a Curbed Groundbreaker, Architects under 50, Domes International Review of Architecture Awards, and the Young Greek Architects Awards. His work has been widely published and exhibited in institutions such as the Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York and the Benaki Museum in Athens.

Ilias was born in Athens, Greece and studied architecture at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki and at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. In addition to his practice, Ilias is a frequent lecturer and panelist at leading design institutions. Ilias is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, and has previously taught at Tulane University and University of Thessaly. He co- authored solid objectives: order, edge, aura, published by Lars Müller Publishers and was an Ideas City Fellow, a platform for urbanism organized by the New Museum.