PPAE’s own headquarters, on Leonida Street — a contemporary office building of steel and glass, inserted on an urban plot of only 75 sqm, between party walls, next to an old house of distinctive architectural value. For an architecture office, its own headquarters is also a manifesto: it shows how you handle a small, difficult site, next to a neighbour worth respecting.

Challenges

The plot is 75 sqm and is caught between the property boundaries, attached to party walls. The main neighbour is a building of distinctive architectural value, and the central stake was a harmonious integration with it: a new, contemporary construction that sits naturally next to a period architecture — without competing with it and without imitating it. In addition, on a narrow, deep plot, the building still had to bring in light and usable workspace.

Solutions

The slender steel structure is honestly exposed — including the diagonal bracing — reducing the built mass and letting the facade be, for the most part, glass. The transparency brings in the light needed on a tight plot and makes the volume light and discreet next to the old house, rather than dominating it.

Deference toward the neighbour is explicit: toward the neighbouring property, the closures are of frosted glass, so the image from that neighbour stays unchanged; toward the street, clear glass. The palette is contemporary and sober — black steel, white fibre-cement ribbed bands, adjustable horizontal sunshades, structural-glass railings — an honest contrast, modern next to historic, without mimicry.

In the 2020 stage, the two covered terraces on the 1st and 2nd floors were enclosed to gain office space, and the facades were redone with more durable materials and better fire behaviour.

Result

The PPAE headquarters is a built demonstration of how the office approaches a difficult, sensitive site: urban insertion on a very small plot, a respectful dialogue with a heritage building and an assumed contemporary architecture. The team’s calling card, literally.

Do you have a difficult urban plot, perhaps next to a building of architectural value? The PPAE team can support your project from concept to completion. Contact us