The office dimitrakambalighting – architecture carried out the lighting design for the new store of the well-known bookshop chain Eleftheroudakis in central Athens, in collaboration with the architectural practice that undertook the project, if untitled architects.
The store’s new, contemporary identity redefines the relationship between the reader and the book, offering a more interactive and outward-facing store in the city. The brief called for a lighting solution that would meet both quantitative and qualitative requirements while saving as much energy as possible.
The façade plays the leading role in the construction, acting as shop window, stage and reading space. The lighting had to showcase it with as little intervention by luminaires in the structure as possible.
The lighting is integrated into the stepped shelving units, or bookcases, in such a way that the light source is not visible to the observer, thereby preserving the store’s outward-facing, interactive character.
The aim was to create a “relaxed atmosphere” that would also provide the necessary “functional” lighting, so that visitors could read at any point in the space. This was, after all, what the layout itself encouraged, consisting as it does of book counters and seating areas.
The strongly industrial look of the luminaires and of the installation as a whole, the uniform distribution of light, and the soft forms of the decorative luminaires were among the elements that initially shaped the central lighting concept. An important and self-evident requirement was to show the product off as well as possible through the lighting.
Continuous linear runs of fluorescent luminaires follow the long horizontal shelves, lighting them evenly and providing suitable perimeter lighting for the space.
The circulation areas are deliberately left “underlit”, with higher contrast, so that they are lit by points of interest such as illuminated display cases, decorative luminaires and concealed lighting.
Architectural design: If-Untitled Architects
Collaborators: Filippos Chouri, Manolis Charos
Civil engineer: Maria Bravakou
Lighting design: Dimitra Kamba
Typography Consultant: Angelos Pantelidis
Address: PANEPISTIMIOU 11 & AMERIKIS, ATHENS
Size: 1500 sq. m.
Date: 2011
Text: Dimitra Kamba
Photographs: Vangelis Paterakis
