Bonama delicatessen was inspired as a warehouse-lab for local and artisanal products. The design combines materials such as perforated brick, tile, steel and plaster, creating a raw and sophisticated synthesis. Two former car garages were combined into a single space, consisting of a ground floor of 100 sqm and an auxiliary loft of 50 sqm at the base of a two-storey apartment building of the 1990s on the central, commercial street of Glyfada. The industrial aesthetics of the pre-existing use, the Mediterranean character of the area and the public, commercial character of the street are the key elements of the new concept. The store is developed along the street frontage with a sequence of spaces, centrally the entrance with the café and in a linear arrangement the product shelves and storage refrigerators. At either end of the layout are placed the butcher’s corner and the wine cellar respectively. Maintaining the industrial aesthetic of the shell, we used coated steel as the main design element for the new two-storey façade, staircase, shelving, wine cellar and furniture cladding. The new facade allows natural light to enter the store at all hours, highlighting the interior materials and gradients. The design of the interior staircase intensifies the double height of the space with the steel rods that suspend from the ceiling. The design of the façade follows the orthogonal canvas of the existing building with new subdivisions and is differentiated at the point where it is a newer addition at the end with a curvature. In this way, the new design integrates and completes the appearance of the existing building. The store is conceived as an extension of the public space, a version of a modern marketplace. Thus, the storefront was designed with a dual use, with the interior side welcoming display shelves for product display and the exterior side extending outward as a fixed counter, part of the seating area. Thus the fixed, transparent boundary of the façade unites the inside with the outside.
Athens, 2023