Athens Architecture : Information + Images

Mixed-use Building: SHOPS, OFFICE AND RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX Location: ATHENS, GREECE Size: 5,500 M2 Type: COMMISSION Status: ON-GOING Client: OLIAROS The given program of the mixed-use building includes parking, commercial spaces, office space and housing, arranged in the following sequence: a 6 storey parking cellar, shopping and galleries half a level below street level, superposed by restaurants, shops half a floor above street level flanked by one floor of offices and two levels of housing on the top; an architectural moussaka! The Athens law requires all new development to provide 30% of unbuilt land for public use. In this project we provide 30% of unbuilt and cleared to the sky as well as around 20 percent of unbuilt but covered.  Thereby providing a very accessible ground floor.  Due to its strategic position the site for the mixed-use building should ideally be a void: it would allow to connect 2 important poles of the neighbourhood, the AVDE Library square and the crossing of Megalou Alexandrou & Kolonthynthous. Due to the difficult equation of land use and maximization of build substance, it’s almost impossible to join those ends. By cracking the ground across the site the project creates a canyon that links both ends. Athens Building images / information from Julien de Smedt in 2008 Athens Building designer : Julien De Smedt Architects Athens Building by Julien de Smedt - Project Team Julien de Smedt, Barbara Wolff, Kamilla Heskje, Alexandros Geroussis, Andy Vann, Dimitri Brisy, Dries Rodet, Federico Pedrini, Felix Luong, Lena Billmeier, Melissa Kim, Mike Robitz, Nicolas Kisic, Jens Vilhemson, Josua Gillet, Michaela Weisskirchner, Sandra-Tabea Hirschler, Taku Nagamatsu, Therese Wallstrom, Wouter Dons