Athens Live - Work Spaces
Zacharitsa 27
Zacharitsa 27 is a home-work-shop hybrid, in Koukaki, Athens. Its design allows for uses beyond the domestic, hoping for interactions with the wider Koukaki neighbourhood as an exhibition space, a shop, a workshop, a place to write or a place to host dinner. Built in 1979, it began its life as a typical post-war polykatoikia (apartment building). The home was owned and occupied by a craftswoman who made and sold crafts for weddings and christenings. The design approach has sought to respect the original building’s architecture and purpose, to fold in traditional techniques and salvaged materials and subtly merge modern amenities. The original steel spiral staircase, marble window sills and terrazzo floors have been stitched together with new terrazzo flooring and reclaimed marble patch-worked tiles. The kitchen’s reclaimed marble workbench and sink sit on brickwork and textured concrete cast on-site. The subterranean bathroom’s new concrete bath sits on old and introduced marble tiles and slabs. Zacharitsa is filled with found European mid-century furniture, locally made or sourced objects and artworks and plants.
Syrou
Syrou is a commercial development in Athens and has been approached in the same spirit as our residential projects; which is to restore, conserve or preserve existing architecture.
The former shopfront is located in Kypseli, on the corner of a grid of thin streets, at the base of a five-storey polykatoikia (apartment) building.
The shopfront has been converted into a modest workspace. Split into two halves, the front of the site houses the Molonglo office, and is equipped with a large six person meeting table, two workstations and kitchen and bathroom facilities. The original terrazzo flooring has been retained and marble finishings have been introduced in the kitchen. The rear of the building has been designed as a malleable space with its own entrance and has the potential to be used as a commercial space by local operators in the future.
