SATO office & stores building

168 Kifissias Ave, Maroussi, Attica, 2000-02

Architects
Dimitris Potiropoulos (1953)
Liana Potiropoulou



The main building of the Greek office furniture company Sato, a work by Dimitris Potiropoulos and Liana Potiropoulou, is an impressive example of deconstruction architecture in Attica.
The building’s ground floor contains its showroom and on the upper floors are the offices. The basement levels, which include the garage and auxiliary functions, cover the entire area of the lot.
The random geometry of the lot, which has a narrow front on Kifissias Ave and continues back from there in a crooked line, affected the architectural solution. Thus, the metal volume of the building curves along the line of the lot and meets Kifissias Ave on an angle. The façade intersected by Kifissias is emphasised by being faced with black unpolished granite. The shade panels that protect the south and west side from the sun are deployed along the linear vertical grid of the building. On this grid are also metal forms that jut out at random and are suspended over the street.
The architectural idea is expressed as a process of developing a system; the process then appears to be interrupted abruptly where the street intersects the continuation of the urban landscape. The Sato office building – in its particular location – offered an opportunity to develop more dynamic ideas about buildings in relation to the typical Cartesian building forms and level façades that flank this particular thoroughfare.

TRANSPORTATION