The office is located within the historic centre of Athens, in the neighborhood of Keramikos. The existing building is a listed Bauhaus structure occupying half a city block, originally built to house a vehicle suspension manufacturer. A lot of the building's original ornaments refer to its first use.
The office, with an entrance off a pedestrian street and extensive outdoor areas with Acropolis views, occupies two floors above the high ceiling ground level. The program for the design was a hybrid office / residential use. The owner wanted a flexible design that would allow in the future for the office to be reused as an apartment.
With these programmatic requirements and the restrictions that a listed building presents, the design solution was the creation of an open plan anchored with a service zone (W.C., kitchen, elevator shaft) along the original core in the back end of the building. There are three full bathrooms with showers and five separate heating / cooling zones.
The building was structurally reinforced, the electromechanical infrastructure was replaced, and all its original details, such as the period marble mosaic floor in the entrance, were restored. An energy efficient radiant heating / cooling system was installed in the ceilings and walls and all windows were replaced with low-e glass.
The floor design was created and installed by artist Richard Woods.