Europe 40 Under 40 Awards Tell a friend

Ergon House sits on Mitropoleos street, in the heart of Athens, on the ground floor of a four-story building, that has a listed two-story façade, four stores of newbuilt addition in the ’90s and is considered a one-stop-shop where gastronomy and hospitality meet.

The atrium’ s floor is the interior courtyard that houses the fresh groceries, the café, the open oven, and the olive tree in the middle, around which all are arrayed. The avli is paved with concrete blocks, whereas on one the side we find a vertical garden.

Entering the second part, the double-height creates a magnificent feeling of warmth, with the central unit of the bar, the grocer’s, the fishmonger, and the butchery right in the middle. Around that, multiple seating areas are found, with the traditional colors of a Greek village piazza.

This hotel’s biggest challenge was to combine traditional Greek architecture with the needs of the modern gastronomy-oriented traveler.

The entrance of the hotel is revealed after one has crossed the atrium. The rooms have an interior facade looking at the atrium and a back looking at the Acropolis.

The reception is located on the first floor along with the lounge area with a wide view of the 25 meters atrium with the courtyard and the entrance on the ground floor.

The interior design spins around traditional Greek architecture; the beds echo the old bunk bed style, while the decorative cinder blocks refer to the entrances and lobbies of downtown Athens multi-story buildings of the ’60s. Old marble steps were hewed and transformed into basins. In the tapestry above the sink and the wardrobes, woven loom textiles are used as a decorative element. The contrast of color in each space is achieved by using off-white paint on the walls, as found traditionally in whitewashed buildings and timber elements made of walnut, a tree found all around the country, while natural brass details add a sense of old-fashioned luxury in the rooms. The terrazzo, a durable material used since 1930, is now making a comeback in Greek architecture due to its timelessness and can be found both on horizontal and vertical surfaces in Ergon House.