Two adjacent but separate ground floor shops of an old Athenian apartment building in the area of Pagrati, constitute the framework of the architectural intervention that converted them into a solicitor office and an art studio. The main feature of the double intervention on the interior and on the facade is the creation of two modular, small-scale constructions independent of the existing structural system. The aim of this synthetic decision is to redefine the inhabitation of a ground floor in a dense urban environment highlighting the dialectical relation between intervention and the pre-existing order.
The art studio, is a light steel construction which, starting from the facade, develops through the space and highlights the existing linear structure. This structure also functions as a synthetic tool that organises the various functions of the space, as the elements that compose it – bench, balcony, and staircase – delineate its conditions of use.
The two interventions are integrated within the existing construction thus manifesting the rules of their structural design.