Maria Gkika -Sustainable Building Design in Crete
Armed with a strong academic background and practical experience, Maria has become a trailblazer in the field, integrating environmentally conscious practices into every facet of her work. Maria holds a degree in Civil Engineering and has honed her expertise in sustainable construction methods, seeking innovative solutions to minimize environmental impact.

Talk to Maria Gkika about your sustainable construction inquiries.

Responsible, ethical and responsive; constant and courageous; autonomous and innovative. We are looking for exceptionality.
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Our Philosophy

Biophilic Design in Architecture: The Cretan Nature Meets Concrete

The variety of architectural and engineering design solutions and their compliance with the Greek Building Codes and Global Engineering Standards incited a lot of challenges. Often, engineers and architects strive to preserve the aesthetics of housing appearances and fail to fulfill a client’s need.

Compared to commercial buildings, the residential design must allow for full integration at all levels of inhabitants’ lives. Moreover, due to excessive energy consumption during the construction and maintenance of a residential project, project design and management must be sustained. For instance, demand for water is outstripping supply in Crete and climate change is making it worse.

Thus, to successfully integrate our sustainable design principles in our projects, an optimal balance between sustainable housing, technologies integration and customer satisfaction is required. Likewise, we focus with determination on the sustainability of our design towards:

ARENCOS Biophilic Design in Crete, Greece

Biophilic Design Dossier

ARENCOS Biophilic Design Dossier is a collection of resources to assist property owners explore biophilic design and promote human-nature connection in the built environment.

The dossier provides help, guidance, motivation, and support for key features and practices from introducing biophilic design to construction materials, to the energy saving planning and design, all the way through construction and well-being.

The Biophilic Design Dossier includes: Essentials of biophilic design, success stories, lessons learned, biophilic design guidance, biophilic design map, biophilic design activities and handbook, risks to avoid and opportunities to proceed.

Exploring the Complex Challenges Around the Sustainable Built Environment.

Today sustainability and biophilic design in the construction sector has become one of the most important topics within research and buildings design. At ARENCOS we implement and integrate sustainable design principles to optimize construction links and to minimize the impact of buildings on the natural environment of Crete, while ensuring that the quality of buildings is not affected.

Our research focuses on the interactions and synergies between structures, human beings, and the environment to improve the performance of buildings, minimize waste, and create healthy, safe, comfortable and practical spaces.

Transform your buildings into high-performing assets.

Among others, we conduct dedicated research on:

NET-ZERO - Sustainable Building Design in Chania, Crete
Are you interested in living off-the-grid in Crete? Building in a sustainable way is one thing, but creating a comfortable, off-grid and net-zero property in a remote location takes innovation and courage. 
Off Grid House in Crete - How much does it cost

OFF-GRID HOUSE IN CRETE: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Fully off-grid covers places where there is no mains grid connection at all. This could either be down to the costs or purely as a personal choice. Installing solar panels is not enough to be considered off-grid, and most people who use solar energy still rely on electricity from an outside source.

ARENCOS - Chania Architects and Engineers - Dark Logo
Functionality. Practicality. Sustainability. Inclusivity.

Using our critical thinking, knowledge, motivation and passion to deliver lasting value for our projects– that’s our approach to sustainability. We have the motivation to do it, and we believe we have the responsibility to do it. It’s that simple.

Passive House Construction and Design In Crete - Articles and Podcast

PHCC is an architectural and engineering philosophy for zero-carbon buildings in Crete, Greece.

Our expertise spans carbon, water, waste and energy saving, planning and management skills ranging from project construction and advisory services to sustainable infrastructure and net-zero.
Off-Grid Houses in Crete, Greece - Our Approach
Project Management in Crete
Property Identification and Real Estate Mediation in Crete, Greece

Creating Lasting Value

Following state-of-the-art sustainable design concepts and using eco-friendly materials for our construction projects in Crete, not only reduces the impact of the properties on the environment, but also provides our clients more freedom to experiment with designs and concepts that highlight creativity, function, innovation, and wellbeing.