"Eikastikos Kyklos" Art Gallery

121 Harilaou Trikoupi St, Athens, 1992-97

Architect
Michalis Souvatzidis (1946-)
Cooperating architect
Eriphylli Souvatzidi



The radically innovative Eikastikos Kyklos Art Gallery, built in the terrace system, was the counterproposal of Michalis Souvatzidis to the colourless architectural reality of a downtown Athens quarter.
The building, with a total area of 1780 m2, includes exhibition areas of 1000 m2: a single exhibition area three floors high, an independent area for special exhibitions on the second floor, and office spaces on the third. In the basement are auxiliary, parking and storage areas, and the workshop for the conservation of works of art.
The exhibition venues are organised around a central atrium which cuts through the building vertically and has floors-ceilings of glass bricks to exploit the natural lighting. On the ground floor level, the atrium faces on two streets so that there can be visual contact with the street and with the open space.
The synthesis of the elevation is an imaginative solution that integrates the building into the row system. Of the five parts into which the façade is divided, the corner ones are two vertical glass brick curtains that constitute neutral transitional surfaces.
The façade of the building is strongly technological in nature. It is sheeted with concrete bricks resting on a dense grid of visible screws, has oblong metal openings, and stainless steel reflectors on the crown of the building that are used to exploit the solar energy.
The visible structural element is reinforced concrete – polished externally and painted internally with the colour of aluminium, and the doors and windows are of coated steel.

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