Office Building - Kolonakiou

Modern cities have a tendency to come to life, to come into their own at night, where lighting and transparency come to select what one can read into a design. The interior, visually dark in the day, is transformed into a gem of information. In a culture where one drives as opposed to walking the streets that first impression can be a formative. A long building, its layers stretched out, serves the purpose well. Within this context the effect of repetition can be quite enticing. Livein Plaza sets out to achieve this with confidence. Its glazed facades, to the street side, are given a rhythm and a scale through substantial vertical slabs of rich marble that run across the entire stretch of the three levels of offices that are perched above a row of commercial facilities. Above and below this main event a further, tighter rhythm provides visual content while also serving to provide significant shading to the interior. This not only accentuates the depth of the façade it also serves as a neat contrast to the glazed skin of the spaces themselves. A further compositional element are the setbacks incorporated at the end of each office level, creating casual external spaces. It is important in a city to be able to let go. To be able to step back and allow the hustle and bustle to drift by. It is also important to feel a sense of place about where one is, to be able to inhabit an object which is defined and confident enough for the journey.