Public Power Corporation Sub-station and Office building

Tritis Septemvriou and Rizou Sts, Athens, 1973-77

Architect
Cleon Crantonellis (1912-78)



The power distribution substation and office building of the Public Power Corporation, a ground-breaking structure of concrete, aluminium and glass, is considered a noteworthy example of modern Greek architecture. With its strong "neo-brutalist" presence, Crantonellis’s building proposes a different relationship with the city, which fascinates young, non-conformist architects. This architectural composition is a result of the fortuitous combination of the disparate functional requirements of the building – i.e. for industrial use and office space – and the triangular shape of the lot that ends in an acute angle.
Two enormous distribution boards, one and two storeys high, determine the organisation of the façades and are expressed with their curved aluminium projections on one elevation. On the more conventional side, the slightly projecting plane aluminium section imitates the form of a glass curtain. The vertical glass sashes on the corner, the small asymmetrical openings and the visible concrete joints on the elevations that indicate the internal levels lend plastic interest to the building’s dynamic shape.
The architect’s intention was further to emphasise the industrial nature of the prismatic building by placing a sculpture by Giorgos Zongolopoulos on the cut-away acute angle. It was a helix in perpetual motion that was to have been lighted at night. But the sculpture was not finally installed.

TRANSPORTATION