The Birth Center

Athens, Greece

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The one with the butterfly ceiling

The Birth Center

Athens, Greece

Firm

erion workshop

Type

Government + Health › Medical Facility

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2025

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

The Birth Center in Nea Filothei, Athens, is the first facility in Greece dedicated to physiological childbirth outside the hospital environment. The project was developed to accommodate a specialized healthcare program while maintaining a calm, non-clinical spatial character.

The building is organized to support clear circulation and functional separation between public, semi-private, and private areas. The layout prioritizes legibility and operational efficiency, ensuring smooth movement for users and staff. Interior spaces were designed to balance medical requirements with controlled lighting, acoustics, and material choices that reduce visual and sensory overload.

Accessibility was a primary design parameter. Due to the site’s level differences, a new artificial topography was introduced. An elevated green platform provides barrier-free access throughout the building, eliminating staircases and ensuring continuous circulation. This landscape element also functions as a buffer zone, reducing urban noise and mediating the transition from the public street to the more controlled interior environment.

The architectural expression of the building is defined by a secondary façade made of glass fiber reinforced concrete (GRC). The façade operates as a permeable envelope that regulates privacy, daylight, and environmental conditions. It allows diffused natural light to enter the birthing rooms while limiting direct visual connections with the surrounding urban context.

An intermediate cavity between the GRC façade and the primary building envelope accommodates mechanical and electrical installations. This layered approach allows technical systems to be integrated without impacting the spatial clarity of the interiors. The façade therefore performs both as an architectural and technical component, consolidating environmental control, infrastructure, and visual screening into a single system.

Material selection and detailing were guided by durability, hygiene, and maintenance requirements, while maintaining a restrained architectural language. The project combines precise construction detailing with a clear organizational logic, proposing an alternative typology for healthcare-related facilities in Greece.