Lighting design for a temporary exhibition on the ancient Greek ideal of beauty (Kallos), presented at the Museum of Cycladic Art in collaboration with L’Oreal Paris. The exhibition featured 300 antiquities—including marble statues, ceramics, jewelry, and accessories—dating from the 7th to 1st century BC. Divided into ten thematic units, it explored Beautification and the multifaceted concept of Beauty: Human, Divine, Heroic, and Demonic.

Designer: AKA architects

Curators: Prof. N. C. Stampolidis and Dr. I. D. Fappas

Museographical Design: Despoina Tsafou

Visual Identity: BEND

Photography: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

Sponsored by L’Oreal Group

Welcome to If the Walls Could Speak. We have crafted an experience that allows the visitor to feel, see and touch the materials that make up our lived environment. It also brings attention to the myriad historical artifacts that persist in our midst, like not-so-hidden time travelers.

If the Walls Could Speak expands on tAS 4 2022 Waste Not Want Not’s focus of reducing waste, upcycling, and lowering carbon emissions in manufacturing and construction. If the Walls Could Speak highlights the skill and craftmanship of Greek manufactures and their global importance. We will also explore best practices for historic preservation in new construction and ways to reduce harmful environmental outcomes.

Perhaps most importantly, twenty first century Greece is being imagined, planned, and built now. Athens is not just a city with history, Athens is history. The city’s achievements are known all over the world. Unlike other ancient cities, Athens continues to be a vibrant cosmopolis even after millennia.

As Athens builds its’ future, If the Walls Could Speak wants to emphasize the value of the cultural, physical and creative past. As part of this emerging process, we encourage designers, builders and planners to imagine the yet-to-be-built environment incorporating existing material and structures that are already part of our physical historical terrain.

The materials we propose using have their own histories. The reuse and repurposing of already existing infrastructure is different from reusing production waste. Using existing structures saves on carbon expenditure because each artifact’s lifespan has far exceeded the original extraction cost.

The ineffable quality of reinhabited buildings comes from the many lives lived in these structures: uncountable feet trod the floors, innumerable hands touched the surfaces and a many voiced chorus echoes through the spaces. Modern civilization began in ancient Athens through a cultural dynamism of social, political and artistic innovation; it was the model for the complex, advanced, influential global city.

We must accept the challenge to improve our collective future with forward looking sustainable ideas, designs, materials, structures and systems. We believe a clearer understanding of contemporary needs and solutions comes from cognizance of our place on the human historical continuum.

‘If the Walls Could Speak,’ the second installment of the ‘Wasted’ series of installations, was showcased in The Architect Show 2023.

Curation: John Veikos, Anna Sbokou

Design & Coordination: John Veikos, Anna Sbokou, Ioanna Kotoula, Eirini Chatzi

Lighting Design: ASlight Studio

Content Editor: J. Ward Regan PhD

Graphic Design: MANGO ART

Signage: MARMOURIS, MANGO ART

Installation: Karamalegos Bros. Giannis & Vasilis Vlachakis

Photography: Gavriil Papadiotis [GavriiLux]

Waste Material Providers and Fabricators: AggloTech, AL2, Apollon Design, Decospan, Electron, Eltop, Eva Papadopoulou, Flux Laboratory Athens, Inoxal by ETEM, Konstantinidis S.A., Kraft Paints, Machos Glass, Marmouris S.A., Marmyk Iliopoulos, Novamix, Rangahaus, SANELCO, Stonetech, The Fabulous Group, Twelve Concept, Unilin, VETA

Website: thearchitectshow.gr

Lighting design of the permanent exhibition of the New Maria Callas Museum expanding throughout the museum’s exhibition space.

LIT Lighting Design Award 2024 Winner (Visitor Experience & Museum Exhibition)

Designer: Erato Koutsoudaki

Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos

The Maria Callas Museum is located in the center of Athens, honoring the life and achievements of the renowned opera singer.

On the first floor, the main area is daylit on one side. Sculptures and busts are combined side by side with musical scores, letters and clothing, each with different conservation requirements. Zoom tracklights, with barndoors, offered flexibility on focusing and control of the light distribution. The glass showcases and display shelves have integrated lighting. A recessed ceiling lightbox is programmed through an astronomical clock compensates the natural lighting, during the day and provides balance throughout the museum floor.

Sustainability Approach

All luminaires were fitted with an on-board dimming capability, in order to set all lighting at the desired level and avoid any excess use of power. Given the conservation or aesthetic requirements of a large portion of the exhibits, most luminaires were used at less than 50% of their output, providing a substantial energy saving.

All LED track spotlights and linear LED profiles used in the project were sourced by a local manufacturer that fabricates the body-parts and assembles the luminaires in Athens, thus minimizing transport and associated carbon footprint.

Furthermore, the luminaires are designed in such way that allows replacing components in existing luminaire bodies, also performed locally.

Lighting design for the temporary exhibition at the Museum of Cycladic Art that highlights one of the most significant historical events of Greek antiquity – the Battle of Chaeronea, which marked Alexander the Great’s rise to power and set the stage for the creation of the modern world.

LIT Lighting Design Award 2024 Winner (Visitor Experience & Museum Exhibition)

Architect: AKA architects

Curators/Concept: Panagiotis Iossif, Ioannis Fappas

Exhibition Design/Museography: Despina Tsafou

Photography: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

The exhibition explores one of the most important historical events of Greek antiquity – the battle of Chaeronea that brought Alexander the Great onto the political stage and laid the foundations for the creation of the modern world.

The theme is the battle that opposed the Macedonian army of Philip II against that of the allied Greek cities, the Sacred Band of Thebes and the army of Athens.

In addition to introducing the two worlds that collided, the exhibition presents the burial practices of the two armies: the Polyandrion (mass grave) of the 254 Theban members of the Sacred Band with their guardian monument of the Lion of Chaeronea, and the Tumulus of the Macedonians.

The contrast between the battle elements and the burial findings is intensely brought out through the exhibition. For the battle, dark walls and exhibits in the perimeter, allow visitors to immerse themselves in the history. Focused lighting, with framing projectors and harsh shadows enhance the dramatic effect the curators and designers intended. On the other hand, the burial bathed in white, makes the visitors spectators in a serene space, with ample diffused light. Wall-washing and allowing light to fill the white canvas, provided a shadowless sense of purity.

The two worlds collide in the red round room, where red perimeter LED lights graze the walls and a subtle pulse accompanies the unnerving soundscape.

Sustainability Approach

This temporary exhibition used the existing equipment of the museum and adaptations were made to fit the needs of the lighting design.

The LED profiles used in the red round room, where specified RGBW rather than just red, so that they would also have a use in future exhibitions and form part of the museum’s lighting kit.

Lighting design of the temporary exhibition whose narrative unfolds through the myths and history of the city and its Mysteries – within the framework of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture.

LIT Lighting Design Awards 2024 Honorable Mention

Architect: Trail Practice

Curated by: Panos Giannikopoulos

Photos: Pinelopi Gerasimou, Yiannis Kouskoutis

Mystery 151 A Rave Down Below explores the political dynamics of the body in motion from a simultaneously geological and cultural underground point of departure. Alchemical wanderings from the historical past towards mythology and a post-industrial present culminate in a delirious dance.

The exhibition’s narrative unfolds through the myths and history of the city of Elefsina and its Mysteries, with dance serving as a means of climax, a sacred ritual, and a method for exploring concepts of death and loss.

Through installations, painting, sculpture, sound, and performance, the exhibition seeks to redefine the boundaries of dance, reflecting on the (collective) body and its absence, memory, and the necessity of movement.

Set in a high-ceiling warehouse, the exhibits & installations allow ample room for the visitors to occupy the space. In the same spirit, the lighting design aimed to accommodate the narrative, leaving room for darkness and mystic in the vast warehouse space, isolating the objects, using oblique angles to create long shadows and textures. The synthesis is completed with the selective use of colour, to evoke the ‘rave’ feeling.

During the opening night, the dark parts of the exhibition were filled with pools of light, marking the route of a performance, thus creating a momentary stage, with the audience still in the darkness of their wondering.

Lighting design for the permanent exhibition space of Zoumboulakis Galleries and Οffices in Athens to house temporary collections and periodic exhibitions.

Architect: Zoumboulakis Architects

Photography: Ioanna Roufopoulou

Lighting design of the temporary exhibition of the Wellcome Collection, exhibiting artefact, objects and digital media.

Designer: maison beton

Photography: Wellcome Collection

‘Waste not Want not’, the first installment of the ‘Wasted’ series of installations, was showcased in The Architect Show 2022.

The concept of upcycling emerged about a decade ago, mainly in the field of furniture design, as something alternative in its rationale and presentation. Nowadays things have changed. The study and implementation of sustainability policies dominate the planning strategies of states, companies, universities, research centres and other institutions. Obviously, the use of what already exists can also assume a poetic character.

In the spirit, but not in the aesthetic of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s “I Grotteschi”, “Waste not Want not” presented the spectator with a series of objects or composite features made from the material “waste” of its sponsors. We looked into a narrative that explains why something is deemed “waste” and its overall carbon footprint.

The lighting design for Waste not Want not was based on the idea of elevating the objects and materials on display into art pieces in a gallery-like setup. The idea was to use light to create contrast between these repurposed items and materials and the theatrical setting of the installation. Lighting was used to emphasize certain properties of the materials and objects, such as texture or color, to create a certain atmosphere that could help to drive the narrative of the installation and to promote a lighting design culture based on sustainability and impact awareness.

A series of custom luminaires were also designed purely out of waste material, like aluminum profile cutoffs, glass tubes excess & marble rejects. A large spiral structure with suspended angled laminated wood cut-off tiles was designed to provide a low-level general lighting. Using the white surface of the tiles as reflectors, an uninteresting material was now part of a feature element. A short light show every hour gave life to each individual piece, enhancing the immersive experience and the ‘sculpture gallery’ feeling of the installation.

The visitor saw the value and the potential inherent in the materials that we now consider to be “waste”, by presenting them as “Good Art”, decorated with dynamic theatrical lighting to activate the various elements of the exhibition. Elevated in spirit, the object has one last story to tell about itself and about how we can give it a new purpose.

Interiors Awards 2023, GOLD (Cultural / Art & Entertainment)

Curation: John Veikos & Anna Sbokou

Client: The Architect Show 2022

Photography: Gavriil Papadiotis [GavriiLux]

Waste Material Providers and Fabricators: AL2, EVA PAPADOPOULOU, KONSTANTINIDIS SA, LITHOS, MACHOS GLASS, MARMYK, METIS, NOVAMIX, QOOP METALWORKS, SERPETINIS, STONETECH, VETA SA

Installer: KARAMALEGOS – INNOVATIVE EVENT SOLUTIONS

Website: thearchitectshow.gr