Commercial / Εμπορικά έργα
Notary Office in Athens
design , 2024
It is a conversion of a 1950's apartment to a notary office for a young professional. She asked for a simple and clearly organised office, with separate rooms for meetings with clients. She also wanted to use earthy, warm materials such as wood for bookcases and furniture.
The main idea is to use wood surfaces that create distinct zones and feature walls within the space. In a notary office, all archive files are the essence of the profession. Creating a coherent, neutral wooden backdrop and shelving, makes the files a centerpiece, an exhibited object within the space.
The initial visual was materialised with wood veneer partitions and shelving, in the same colour as the existing interior doors.
The office has a daylight feel and ambience through the use of ceiling skylights with hidden LED lighting. Additional ceiling pendants signify the desk within each space.
Optical store in N.Psyhiko, Athens
design / build, 2011
It is a ground floor store with a narrow, three meter façade on the street. There is also a basement and a mezzanine. The client asked for a clear separation between sunglasses and vision glasses, as well as between glasses for young and more mature ages. The insistence of the client on these matters, between ages and product, brought to surface “obsessions” of my own on this matter, like the “Acrobat on a ball” painting (Picasso,1905) which is a metaphor of youth and maturity, of the light weight and the concrete.
Seen in that light, this architectural gesture could be characterized as a simple metaphor, an experiment of space that is founded on the coexistence between these two elements: the soaring and the grounded.
Having that in mind, the youth products are placed on free standing surfaces that seem to hover above ground, whereas the products for more mature clients are sitting over a solid rectangular volume. This volume also stands as a storage space for all kinds of products.
The separation between vision and sun glasses in achieved through the materiality of the display surfaces: the vision glasses are placed in surfaces of black iron and the sunglasses are nested on surfaces of plywood.
Optical store in Marousi, Athens
design / build, 2007
"Eyelab" is both an optical store and laboratory, where the customer observes and participates "from within": The ground floor hosts a prominent position in bench repair, and equally obvious is the space of optometry on the mezzannine floor.
The owner requested an "economic" and workable proposal, with the greatest possible surface for display and storage of goods.
In a conventional approach, the maximum projection area of the goods resulting from the length of the perimeter walls. To further grow this length, were added along the folds. This gesture was essential for the organization of different regions over the windows, depending on the type and cost of optical goods.
Simultaneously, the perimeter walls were treated as a single architectural element - "shell" that has the potential to involve multiple functions. The digital design of the project was essential for controlling (and often redesign in detail) all individual stoicheion.To architectural element "shell" integrates and organizes multiple functions into a single set: presentation, lighting, separation and storage of optical goods.
Construction was done by standardizing and mapping the " shell " to 5 types of billets and surfaces. The fragments were analyzed in spreads from surfaces, which then were cut from sheets of MDF using CAM, (computer aided manufacturing) and specifically with laser cutting.
The pieces were assembled entirely in carpentry and then painted white lacquer. The final assembly of the shell was on the spot in the shop where the pieces was secured in vertical and horizontal guides. These guides create a gap between one hundredth of horizontal zones 1 to 6. The floor was constructed with self-leveling epoxy resin.
Assouline corner, Attica department store
design / build, 2006
Assouline is a global publisher, focusing on art, architecture and culture monographs, which was hosted at the Attica department store in downtown Athens. The brand identity is quite clear on the design principles, yet custom made furniture where introduced. The main "exhibit" would be a laser cut plexiglas display table, yet the "radical" design proposal was replaced by a reclaimed table from the Monastiraki flea market with a new laser cut steel iron top. Other custom made details were added, like boltless steel iron towers and shelves and custom printed velvet curtains.