Designed by Athens-based 314 architecture studio, the optical shop ‘C_29 / Optimist’, is part of an interwar listed building, and encompasses a total surface 90 square meters. Located in the centre of Chalkida, Greece, the space is airy and expands along the central market and the back courtyard / patio which is formed in the core of the building. the edifice itself is a composite construction with the ground floor being made of bearing masonry and the two floors of reinforced concrete and filling brickwork.

The main design aspect was the creation of a gradient technique in the texture of materiality in order to emphasize the reflection and the absorbance of light. This gradient tool continues to exist and plays a significant role even to the choice of materials, resulting in their sound existence or their theoretical absence in the formed space. Some utilitarian objects were transformed into prismatic sculptures.

The courtyard space is delimited by an imaginary cube. The plan does not allow visual contact from the courtyard to the shop. Therefore, a wall at an angle of 45 degrees was added in the intermediate space fully covered by mirror, resulting in visual continuity between the two spaces.

Design: 314 architecture studio / Pavlos Chatziangelidis / Giota Chala / Theodora Papadopoulou / Stelios Dilintas / Andrea Bratu / Karoline Kalionyte / Angeliki Kokkosi / Maria Nikolousi / Elvin Demiri

via designboom