OLYMPIA ZOGRAPHOS
Olympia Zographos is a British-Greek interior designer and artist who trained at leading design school KLC in London and moved to Athens in 2019. Her private studio and showroom is on Kolokotroni Street on the second floor of a 1930s building overlooking the old parliament.
Originally a three-room office, Olympia transformed the property into a gallery/showroom. She designed much of the space from the layout to the art deco-inspired archway and inlaid floors, the kitchen sink and bar, and the geometric tile patterned hallway floor, also putting in moulding and restoring the original doors and handles. She designed and produced the mirrors, much of the furniture [desk, table, storage, LED wall light, neon wall light, wash basin and stands] and some of the art.
The interior design was inspired by the building in which the showroom is located and also by Kolokotroni street and the surrounding commercial triangle with its markets, neon shops, light shops, basement upholsterers, covered walkways [stoa] beneath lawyers’ offices and leather workshops, where you can see craftspeople working as they might have done a thousand years ago or less than a hundred, a fusion of the very old and the vintage modern that Olympia likes to call disco Byzantine.
Olympia works with a range of local carpenters, craftspeople, neon-makers and suppliers, and collaborates closely with an engineer. She’s open to all sorts of interior design and interior architecture projects as well as furniture commissions and art – some of which can be turned into large- or small-scale wall art. Her designs are sensitive to the building and the neighbourhood while adding a touch of fantasy and originality.
Moon Station Athens is a parallel venture housed in Olympia’s studio and inspired by the literary salons of Paris and New York with the idea of bringing together artists, art-lovers, architects, designers, craftspeople, writers, poets, thinkers and innovators to share their work. We will have small events such as talks, Q & As, film screenings and workshops with artistic themes or about innovation. Curated by Olympia Zographos and novelist and former BBC journalist Rana Haddad who closely collaborates with Olympia in sourcing fittings, art and objects and in the management and direction of OZD.
