Kyriakos Krokos: Fassianos Building, Athens 1987-1992

A close interest in the fine arts brought Kyriakos Krokos into early contact with thepainter Alekos Fassianos who sponsored the realisation of Krokos’ first significant design. Subsequently awarded the first prize in the competition for the Byzantine Museum in Thessaloniki, the commission was to be his largest and most comprehensive architectural statement in terms of a new, free-standing building. However, the much smaller commission of the conversion and remodelling of a second Athenian apartment building, belonging to the Fassianos family, provided the experimental grounds for Krokos’ architectural visions and details, many of which would also be realised in the Byzantine Museum. In this subsequent mixed-use building that includes a private art gallery and apartments, both Krokosand Fassianos have realised their vision of a quotidian urban life, in which art andarchitecture are mutually sustaining. This monograph includes five essays and the reproduction of extensive hitherto unpublished archival material, and concludes with a comprehensive selection of photographs.