Apartment of a photographer in Athens | Tsolakis Architects

An apartment of the typical 1930’s Athenian apartment building in the center of Athens, is transformed into a contemporary residence of a photographer. Today, after almost 90 years, the space gains a dual meaning, serving both as a residence and as a gallery for temporary exhibitions.

The floor plan is no longer divided into small, autonomous, static spaces. Various islands in the new open-space plan, create new visual flows and allow multiple movements and views.

During the visitor’s tour through the apartment-gallery, the photographs gradually reveal themselves through the corridors and the openings, as other exhibits. The navigation among the various frames, redefines the relation between the user and the exhibition, as the user is now in the center of all the spatial frames that are produced. The individual frames of the gallery apartment in connection with the photographs of the artist, transform the living into a diverse exhibit.

The alternation of the materials enhances the feeling of the three dimensional spatial frames. Oak, marble, white and dark surfaces intertwine with each other and create new photographic exhibits. The same logic defines the selection of the rest of the equipment. The lights, the mechanical equipment and the furniture have such form, geometry and location that they become instead of useful and lifeless objects, objects of a wider exhibition of photographs, landscapes, spatial frames and people.