Location: Athens
Property Type: Retail
Size: 18m²
Design / Construction: 2006
The retail shop «eleven souls» is situated in the commercial centre of Athens. The character of the region, that has been, by the time of design, transformed and improved due to new and older, yet renovated shopping centres and multistores, along with the creative attitude of the owner, determined the design of this small space.
The shop, with surface of just 19,00 m2, and height of 4,40 m., is angular facing a narrow but busy street and the building’s internal gallery. The increased vehicle and people traffic during day and night made it necessary to modify both facades to windows. Using two sides of this little store for exhibition, led to the creation of a single fluid form that covers the third side and creates a new roof. A construction of 52 slices, whose dimensions change, is designed to create slight, imaginable moves, to redefine the austere boundaries between the walls and the ceiling, while in the same time it transforms the interior’s dimensions. The synthesis is being completed through a reflection game by covering the fourth side of the store – the one facing the street – with black glass panels, that offer to the visitor an alternative vision of the space by distance. In the same way, the long cantilevered counter that is situated in the middle of the store, is covered with similar black glass panels reflecting the shelves and roof.
The aim of the lighting study was to emphasize initially on the fluid form, in order to provoke the interest of the people passing by the store and in the same time to promote the objects that are demonstrated in the windows.
The retail shop has been published in greek architectural magazines and has been presented in the “5th Biennale of Young Greek Architects” in 2007.
Photos by Vassilis Sarioglou.