studio
Local Local has refurbished a ground-floor apartment on the tree-lined streets of Kolonaki, among the neighbourhood's neoclassical and modernist buildings, into the practice's first permanent headquarters.
The studio had been operating out of founder Sofia Xanthakou's own home, Plaka House, which she designed herself beneath the Acropolis. As the Local Local team grew to five, the practice needed an office to comfortably accommodate them. The new space has been fitted out with the same attentiveness to context and material history that runs through Local Local's project work. Through a series of subtle, non-invasive adjustments, Local Local has transformed the apartment into a workspace that feels uniquely tailored to the team.
As a leased space, the brief called for light-touch, non-structural interventions. Local Local worked with what the building already offered, leaving its historical layers legible. The original wooden floors have been repaired and lightened to bring more light into the ground-floor flat, which faces away from direct sun. The walls were painted white throughout, the original doors with rippled glazed panels were restored and finished in a slightly darker tone, and the arched entrance was retained, giving the space a sense of identity. The office itself is L-shaped, split between a primary workspace and a dual-access meeting room.
In the meeting room, a large table crafted in solid cypress was bought from Xanthakou’s cousin, the piece's designer, in a chance encounter while she was moving into the new workspace. It became the inspiration for the rest of the furniture: a large co-working table and two window-facing workstations, were designed by the practice, combining solid wood with Formica for functional heavier daily use. The office chairs, by contrast, are pulled from storage, and sit comfortably alongside the room's bespoke pieces.
Books occupy a central place in the practice. Along one wall, a Vitsoe shelving system holds Xanthakou’s library, built up over almost a decade, from her architecture studies through to her time spent working in Boston and London. Previously kept in storage, the collection is now on permanent display, forming both an intellectual and visual backdrop to the studio's daily work. Overhead, the office is lit by ceiling lights from Michael Anastassiades, whose work Sofia has long admired.
A pistachio-coloured pin board, a custom perforated metal frame stretching the length of one wall, is used through the week to pin up work, step back from it, and evaluate it collectively, a process that crucially for the practices happens away from the screen and stays collaborative by design.
The entrance was conceived as a more memorable introduction to the studio, replacing a lobby that had previously felt anonymous and dark. Local Local invited artist and friend Theodore Psychoyos to create two site-specific sculptures in marble for the space, a material used extensively throughout the studio's own project work. The resulting console and seating have become one of the office's most distinctive features, giving visitors a first impression that feels closely tied to the studio's identity.
The meeting room, once a bedroom, retains its original wardrobe. Rather than remove it, Local Local stripped away its doors and fitted roll-up blinds, turning it into an open storage system now used for material samples and paperwork, a small change that shifted the room's atmosphere as much as its function. A freestanding light, also by Michael Anastassiades, completes the room.
Though modest in scale, the office carries the same attentiveness that shapes Local Local's project work, offering a close reading of what a building already offers, and a willingness to let its existing character lead the design. The new workspace champions the belief that thoughtful interventions can reveal the latent qualities of even the most ordinary spaces.
