Corporate headquarters, Athens

Architectural Design | Dimitri Tsigos

Design team | Katerina karagianni, Christina Tsakiri, Amarillis Bista

Construction management | Antonis Kidonis

Current state | Completed

In the past couple of decades, the corporate environment is clearly moving towards a more democratic workspace architecture. Right minded owners of large companies decide to steer clear of work spaces that vulgarly portray the company’s hierarchy and structure.

Instead they ask for a democratic milieu that encourages the idea of a collective enterprise, whilst providing their executive employees with some added features in a subtle, elegant manner.

Such is the case with our clients and the corporate headquarters for their shipping company in Athens, Greece.

The architectural intent was to enhance a sense of unity and team-hood within different company departments by placing their members in huge, single – piece workbenches, one for each team. Then, the internal hierarchy was re-administered through the use of fully transparent partitions made out of clear glass, thus returning aspects of privacy and internal company structure to the workplace.

Symbolically enough, the simple architectural components are mere translations of notions of company operation: The solid benches come to materialize the connection between the group members and the sense of communication and cooperation. The almost invisible glass panels, come to reclaim the separation of functions in a way that has the lowest possible cost to the openness of the space and the overall feeling of airiness.

The relationship of these sub sectors with the rest of the floor plan carries a similar philosophy: the team territory is suggested and separated from the office circulation and the rest of the plan through the use of floor light strips that simply indicate the change in program.

Such an exercise in open plan office space carries numerous advantages in term of traditional architectural values. The buildings vistas, which are notable, are visible from almost every inch of the office. Natural light travels uninterrupted and the capacity of the office comes at a calculated 30 percent higher compared to a traditional cubicle system. On top of all this, the sense of open space and airiness contributes greatly to a pleasant working environment.