Krestena Department Stores

The building is located in Krestena, a village near ancient Olympia in the Peloponnese region of Greece. It is a commercial/retail building, and it is one of the first that one encounters when entering the village. The lot’s elongated shape gave the opportunity to create a wide storefront façade. Our design approach focused on avoiding the character of a typical freestanding retail building with large footprint that sits on a vast plinth of paved parking space detached from its natural and built environment. The natural groundcover was preserved in more than half of the lot as well as all the existing trees. Only the strip between the building and the main road has been allocated for parking and therefore has been hardscaped. The visual impact of the loading dock has also been minimized by placing it discretely at basement level. Balancing the inevitable large footprint of the project, attention has been given to make the most of the roof terrace. A large part of it is covered with vegetation of local plants, while the rest is arranged with stepped platforms. Its low perimeter, faced with richly textured local travertine, underlines views of the surrounding mountains. The roof terrace will serve as an open space for a café – restaurant at first floor, although temporarily the floor has been modified for use as a house. The building’s back side is surrounded by trees and greenery, and with its limited openings it has an almost domestic character that sits comfortably among the nearby houses. From the front, with its modern streamlined silhouette, the building is a curious presence in its small-town Greece context, but in terms of its material sensibility a familiar palette has been used: white and ochre-colored plaster and hammered local travertine, which intends to draw attention to the nearby small but remarkable travertine Unknown Soldier monument.