Lada 3
REIMAGINING THE WORKPLACE - TRANSFORMING THE CITY
For their debut project, ehret+klein Greece has set two ambitious goals based on the company’s holistic approach to sustainability – the design of a forward-looking, eco-friendly workplace and the creation of a blueprint for sustainable urban development. By renovating a historic office building in the heart of Athens, ΛΑΔΑ 3 aims to demonstrate how urban renewal can be sustainably achieved without compromising the city’s character or effacing its history.
The project’s low tech/ high impact environmental design extends from the building’s construction to its operation, for which ΛΑΔΑ 3 is receiving a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM certification.
PROJECT STATUS
In construction
LOCATION
Athens
YEAR
2023
RENTAL SPACE
2.424 m²
USAGE
Offices
, Commercial
, Gastronomy
CONTRIBUTORS
ARCHITECTURE
Deca Architecture
CONSTRUCTION
Parostec Construction
CLIMATE ENGINEERING
Transolar KlimaEngineering
ACOUSTICS
Timagenis Acoustics - Architects
LIGHTING
Aslight Lighting Design Studio
DESIGN CONCEPT
LOW TECH / HIGH IMPACT
Guided by ehret+klein Greece’s commitment to lasting quality, innovation and respect for local heritage, ΛΑΔΑ 3 was designed as a healthy, enjoyable and sustainable workplace based on a low tech/high impact strategy that focuses on easy-to-maintain, low tech solutions that deliver the maximum impact in terms of energy savings and environmental quality.
LOCATION
The project takes its name from its address, 3 Christou Lada Street in Athens’ so-called “commercial triangle”, a dense tangle of narrow streets and lanes between Syntagma, Monastiraki and Omonia squares.
Featuring a mosaic of Neoclassical houses, interwar apartment blocks and modernist office buildings, the area’s rich history, retro style and vibrant contrasts are part of its appeal as is its buzzing nightlife, robust public arts program and excellent transport links, which explains why it’s one of the most happening parts of the Greek capital with a flurry of ongoing renovations projects and a stream of new cafés, restaurants and hotels opening or scheduled to open.
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OMONIA SQUARE
8mins - 700m
2
LYCABETTUS
17mins - 1km
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SYNTAGMA SQUARE
7mins- 500m
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NATIONAL GARDEN
12mins - 850m
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PANATHENAIC STADIUM
21mins - 1.6km
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ACROPOLIS
19mins - 1.5km
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FILOPAPPOU
27mins - 2.1km
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MONASTIRAKI SQUARE
9mins - 750m
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PLAKA
10mins - 800m
STORY OF THE BUILDING
For over sixty years, the premises were the headquarters of DOL (Lambrakis Press Group), one of the most prominent publishing organisations in Greece, home to renowned newspapers “Ta Nea” and “To Vima”.
Designed by the prominent German-educated Greek architect Konstantinos Kitsikis, the original three-storey building was constructed in the 1930s with additional floors erected in the 1950s and late 1970s in line with DOL’s expansion under the leadership of the founder’s son, Christos Lambrakis. A penthouse floor added in 1983 to house Lambrakis’ wood-panelled office suite saw numerous politicians and intellectuals regularly drop by during the 1980s and 1990s when DOL’s political clout was at its peak. Partly vacated when the company moved to new premises in 2004, the building was completely abandoned in 2017 when the publishing organisation went bankrupt.
1932
2023
BUILDING LAYOUT
ΛΑΔΑ 3 offers six floors of open-plan office space complemented by a verdant lobby café & lounge area on the ground floor, plus a small auditorium, meeting rooms on the mezzanine, and a multipurpose space on the top floor complete with a spacious terrace and uninterrupted views of the Acropolis. Auxiliary spaces such as changing rooms can be found on the basement level.
RENTAL SPACE (M2)
2.424
PLOT SIZE (M2)
363
LEVELS
9
NATURAL LIGHTING
With its elongated footprint and narrow façades, the building posed a challenge in ensuring that there was sufficient daylight entering the building across the office floors. In response, the team developed two systems that work in tandem:
KALEIDOSCOPE
The system consists of a lightwell, strategically positioned in the middle of the building, and a rooftop heliostat that tracks the sun and redirects the sunlight into the lightwell. Partly clad in prismatic mirrored surfaces, the lightwell reflects the light downwards where it is dispersed into the workspaces and public areas through specially designed openings that gradually get larger the lower the floor is.
LIGHT SHELVES
Exterior sun shades located on the south façade allow natural light to penetrate further into the workspace by bouncing it upwards and reflecting it off the ceiling thanks to a high reflectance upper surface. At the same time, they provide solar shading and help reduce window glare without obstructing views as they are placed above eye-level.
