Page 115 - AIT0918_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Klab architecture, GR-Chalandri
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Grundriss Untergeschoss • Basement floor plan
Bauherr • Client Thanopoulos, GR-Erythraia
Standort • Location Andrianou & Dragoumi, GR-Kifisia
Nutzfläche • Floor space 1600 m 2
Fotos • Photos Mariana Bisti
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More infos on page 160
SUPERMARKET
IN KIFISIA
A supermarket of superlatives: Founded in 1877,
Thanopoulous Supermarket was not only the first in
Athens but is also one of the few which are still suc-
cessful today and owned by the fourth generation of
the family. With the latest and third branch in Kifisia,
Klab Architecture added a highly suitable milestone to
the company and its history of success.
T he perhaps first publication on the food store of the
Thanopoulos family goes back to the year 1910. The black-and-
white photo shows the inside of the first food store in Athens; in the
accompanying text, the business is praised for its modern service, its
design, its wide range and quality of products and its excellent staff.
Already in 1877, Panayiotis Thanopoulos had founded the “Thano -
poulos” food store in the inner city of Athens and, due to the qualities
described above, continued to successfully expand it. As one of the
first, Panayiotis Thanopoulos offered a delicatessen section and
placed newspaper ads to familiarize its customers with new taste
experiences. In the 1980s, the family business moved to Kifisia, a
prospering suburb in the northeast of Athens. This is where, mean-
while, the rich and beautiful had settled; high-quality food and deli-
catessen were in high demand among this clientele. In the 1990s
already, a second store could be opened and recently the third – on
1,600 square metres! And here as well, the family, by now in the
fourth generation, remained faithful to its principle: always to offer
the best as regards service, exclusiveness and design. That is why the
Athenian Klab Architecture office designed the third location of the
supermarket – which has by now grown into a high-end brand. To
succeed, the outdated supermarket building was given a general
overhaul inside as well as outside. Instead of a massive three-storey
box, now a series of white superstructures with pointed gables define
the view from the street. The architects thus refer to the small-seg-
mented structure of the neo-classic surrounding development and to
the stock of plane trees – the pattern of their shady leaves is repeated
as a perforation in the aluminium cladding. Inside, light wood, white-
plastered walls and back-lit Perspex fins dominate the largest part of
the ground-floor sales area; in the corners, fresh-food counters
equipped with marble and stainless steel attract as does a veritable
wine cellar on the new lower level. In this supermarket, even the
well-heeled clientele of Kifisia likes to shop.
AIT 9.2018 • 115