'Surgical Archaeology' in Piraeus, Greece

An ancient navel hub, Piraeus serves as the primary port for the greater Athens region, facilitating both commercial trade and ferry routes to the islands. Today, the industrial waterfront is entering a phase of cultural recalibration. Within a city block of 19th-century port warehouses, new artistic gravity is emerging: two of Greece’s leading contemporary art galleries have embedded themselves into the historic fabric, reframing the area with international significance. 

MPNYC was commissioned to transform a former 19th-century storage warehouse into a multi-use venue capable of hosting lectures, exhibitions, workshops, concerts, dance and theatre performances. Castor Place takes its name from Kastoros Street, itself derived from Castor, one of the Dioscuri twins of Ancient Greek mythology. This lineage introduces an underlying narrative of duality and parallel states that underpins the project. Transformation here is not erasure, but a conscious doubling, where old and new exist in calibrated tension. 

When Andreas Kostopoulos started working on the building, it bore the marks of haphazard interventions. The original 1850s masonry shell, defined by thick load-bearing walls worn by time, had been compromised by a 1990s conversion into a dark, inward-facing nightclub, which imposed a two-story metal extension onto the structure.

The challenge was to reconcile these disparate layers through a method grounded in clarity, adaptability, and light. His reading of the venue’s potential was informed by a familiar theoretical precedent: Cedric Price’s Fun Palace, often described as a “Swiss army knife for the arts,” where indeterminacy and user-driven transformation superseded fixed form. This ethos materialized later in projects such as The Shed, which Andreas engaged with during his time with Liz Diller, where architecture operates as an enabling framework rather than a static object. 

Castor Place was similarly conceived as a blank canvas. Modular staging, flexible lighting, and open floor planning allow it to shape-shift seamlessly for diverse functions. By stripping back unnecessary layers and reopening plugged-in windows and doors, the building now functions as an open, welcoming space capable of continuous reconfiguration.

Andreas’s design strategy operates in an in-between condition: rather than erase its history, he applied a method of surgical archaeology to articulate its disparate layers. The 1990s addition was reinterpreted as a metallic monolithic volume hovering above the original masonry. A slender clerestory window visually separates the two eras, creating the impression of levitation above the original cornice and culminating in a dramatic nine-meter-tall vertical window. This cathedral-like glass opening floods the interior with natural light while revealing the towering heights within that is unique on this block. 

The existing, deteriorated metal facade was refurbished to improve acoustic and water insulation, then finished with a liquid metal coating embedded with aluminum microfibers. This surface performs as a responsive skin: protecting from sun exposure while producing a shifting reflectivity that atmospherically mirrors the sky above Piraeus.

Below, the porous stone base was restored following the removal of the previous protective plaster. Vintage brick was introduced to reconstruct the canopy and left intentionally un-mortared to preserve the visible discontinuity between past and present. The effect is a calibrated contrast between materials, allowing the building’s temporal layers to remain fully discernible. 

Inside, the approach shifts toward unification. To bring coherence to the expansive space, a thin coat of simple stucco was applied over the surfaces—a traditional, coarser filler now largely absent from modern mortars. Liberated from the fatigue of fake perfection, the intervention embraces the honesty of authentic materials. This architectural "whitewashing" turns the various damaged surfaces, structural bracing, metal panels and brick infill into a continuous tonal field, creating an abstracted, almost model-like quality. Paradoxically, this unifying layer accentuates the disparate textures underneath, the many "surgeries" Castor Place has undergone through the decades now emerge in sharper relief. 

The interior volume was further restructured with balconies that provide multiple elevations, overhead trusses and a suspended Gumtree lighting system along the roof, enabling flexible programming and multiple modes of use. The space transforms continuously, supporting each event without imposing a fixed identity. 

Existing trusses, once external structural elements, were conserved and reframed as readymade decorative features, intentionally interrupting the window views as a tangible reminder of the building’s accumulated past.

It was almost as if the history and soul of the building guided us at every step. We worked in the in-between, trying to breathe new ideas into an old structure without violating its unrepeatable sense of age. You cannot “make” old.

We were fortunate to work with a visionary and sophisticated client trio: Peggy and her two daughters, Kyveli and Ekaterini Vezani. The constraints they introduced ultimately strengthened the project, yet they were always open when the right opportunities for expression arose. I feel fortunate to have worked with such thoughtful and engaged clients.

Yes, of course. This project was designed in close collaboration with the heart and soul of the existing building. We set out to introduce innovative ideas while responding to the realities of a 19th-century masonry structure. There were many concepts we wanted to express, but with each step we recalibrated the next, like an architectural chess game, balancing ambition with reality on the grounds.

We are very strong believers of creative collaborations and a means to advance an offline dialogue between creatives 

The building's inaugural exhibition, Βαθυμετρία / Casting Water, was conceived not merely as an event but as a lens for presenting the space itself. Working closely with artist Stefania Strouza and curator and architect Giulio Margheri, the project became an exploration of how art, curation, and architecture can coalesce. 

Central to this collaboration is a pair of monumental cast-aluminum doors, intended as a permanent installation that will remain in-situ. The doors embody the synergy between Manhattan Projects, Stefania Strouza, and the fabrication team Qoop. In dialogue with the building's layered history, they occupy a similarly liminal state, feeling unmistakably contemporary while resonating with the façade's existing textures and imperfections. 

Strouza's practice is defined by a sustained engagement with aluminum, valued for its malleability, reflectivity, and transformative potential. For the doors, she evoked the softness of cast aluminum in contrast against the solidity of the surrounding stone walls. Drawing inspiration from Piraeus’ maritime context, she developed an abstract pattern whose textures reference bathymetry, the science of measuring water depth for mapping ocean floors. 

The reliefs, organized through a grid corresponding to the building's architectural elements, allude to sonar images, liquid topographies and submerged landscapes. For Strouza, a parallel exists between the casting process, creating a negative form in sand and pouring molten metal into the cavity, and bathymetric practices that document fluid, underwater systems. 

The exhibition, shaped by Margheri’s curatorial hand, spans a decade of the artist's experimentation with materiality. Engaging with the environmental and cultural history of different sites in Greece, Strouza’s work highlights the intertwined relationships between human infrastructures and the natural environment. Aluminum sculptures are accompanied by works in plaster, copper-plated and oxidized roots, ceramics, and marble, highlighting the interplay between natural and industrial processes at the core of her work. The capacity of Castor Place is now activated by the collaborative ethos that shapes its use.

This project holds deep personal significance. As part of a body of work spanning London, New York, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Athens, it is incredibly meaningful to have my birth country play a part in Manhattan Projects.

Email interview conducted by John Hill.