April in Athens means Open House. Free guided tours of buildings, interviews with architectural offices, walks in the centre and Kifissia as well as tours of creative spaces have been scheduled for anyone who wants to learn about the city, its history and also about architecture and design. Made in Athens will be running at the same time, on April 9th and 10th, giving a rare opportunity to visitors to learn about the work of new and renowned creators and converse with them in person, within their creative spaces. The studios participating are the following:

Saint of Athens

With an emphasis on teamwork, the Saint of Athens creative agency practices design in advertising, branding, packaging, both in interior spaces and digital ones as well as in social media. Steering clear of traditional means of communication, the team casts a modern and creative look on each of its projects, recruiting different disciplines and techniques of design to produce complete identities for stores, companies, festivals and artists.

More: saintofathens.com

GAVELLO nel blu, Jewellery store . GAVRIIL PAPADIOTIS / Image URBI ET ORBI

Dolce Publishing

The Dolce publishing house was founded in 2017 and is responsible for designing, producing and distributing artists’ books and publications. From creating exhibition catalogues, posters and collectable publications to organising workshops and participating in exhibitions, this publishing house supports small creators and up-and-coming designers. Amongst Dolce’s projects, the «ALL DAY ALL NIGHT / ΟΛΗ ΜΕΡΑ, ΟΛΗ ΝΥΧΤΑ» publication of Laure Jaffuel and also the broad selection of posters and cartes postales in riso printing stand out.

More: dolce.pub

Image: Dolce Publishing

Savapile

Continuing her father’s business founded in 1960, Lisa Sarigiannidou, since 2001, has been creating unique hats made from wicker and other materials as well as baskets and christening accessories. She is the last milliner in the country since industrial hats with automated production have prevailed in the market. Savapile believes in slow fashion, in the process needed to create a handmade, quality and unique item.

Image: Savapile Facebook

2WO+1NE=2

Stella Panagopoulou and Valisia Gotsi promote ethical and sustainable fashion design through their studio named 2WO+1NE=2. With a nomadic and minimalist outlook, each clothing collection that they design is inspired by a city of the world. The designers are inspired by their travels, architectural movements and cinematography as well as by the tradition of each chosen city. Their clothes are made of strictly natural material that can last forever, rejecting any ephemeral trend in fashion.

More: 2plus1equals2.com

Image: 2019 Editorial / Vasileios Papageorgiou

Studio Aristotelis Barakos

The modern, palpable, timeless and 100% Greek product design of Aristotelis Barakos is well known even beyond our country’s borders. Local materials, like marble, wicker and wood are recruited and, combined with thorough research, create functional or artistic objects that have made an impression within the field. Characteristically, the creator was chosen along 10 other Greek designers for the Gran Turismo collection of Adorno.

More: aristotelisbarakos.com

Image: Giorgos Vitsaropoulos

ΝΗ.Μ.Α.

The historic “Mentis” Passementarie was saved, along with its merchandise, in 2012 by the Benaki Museum, which, with the contribution of the Antonopoulos family donation, created the unique, Greek traditional silk product manufactury. The Mentis-Antonopoulos Passementarie, besides its functionality, also serves a cultural purpose, saving and promoting through exhibitions and artistic projects this traditional craft. It even contributed to the production of the nautical cap launched by Dior in the collection Cruise 2022.

More: benaki.org

Image: Benaki Museum

Jam Pedals

With one-of-a-kind designs carefully studied for every musician, Giannis Anastasakis and his team have been designing, crafting and painting guitar and bass pedals for 15 years. These handcrafted pedals produce fine sound with every use, sporting at the same time vivid colours that make a lasting impression. Many international artists have used them like John Scofield, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell and David Hidalgo.

Image: https://www.jampedals.com/

Trabala Studio

This ceramics studio stands out for the plain design of its objects, decorative or functional, made from clay that is baked at a very high temperature. The creations of Hercules and Jenny of Trabala Studio are robust and durable, incorporate simple geometry and pastel colours. In their space, one can peruse all of their creations as well as see the designers in action.

Image: Trabala Studio x Paraphernalia

Fibra Fibra Weaving Workshop

Elena Lanara and Yiota Serifiou, creators of Fibra Fibra, love the elegance of simplicity, vivid colours and the enthusiasm of experimenting. Combining the latter with their passion for knitting, they create accessories, bags and pillows with spontaneous, playful and unique character. Even if their design is modern, the crafting is done with a loom, thus merging tradition with urban culture.

Image: Fibra Fibra

Hub Lighting & Innovation by Kafkas

The known lighting company Kafkas launched a couple of years ago Hub Lighting & Innovation, a new technologically advanced experience for architects, designers, researchers and private use. In this case, light itself is the design, along with the space configured around it and the visitor can interact instead of just observing. The aim of the big team that is Hub is the construction of a new “platform” of communication and collaboration between the different disciplines that incorporate lighting design.

More: hubkafkas.com

Image: Hub Lighting & Innovation

During the same weekend, in the context of the main Open House Athens 2022 event, there will be tours of over 50 public and private buildings. You can see our suggestions of 9 buildings here (link) accompanied by some information regarding their design that caught our attention. For the full schedule of Open House Athens 2022 as well as the visiting hours, click here.

Frontpage Image: Studio Aristotelis Barakos / Giorgos Vitsaropoulos