Monastiraki · Athens
Perianth Hotel.
The Athens that almost was. 1930s, refit.
38 rooms inside a 1930s Streamline Modern building on Agia Irini Square. Opened 2018 by the Sgoumpopoulos family, interior by K-Studio. A neo-modernist tribute to the Athens that almost was.
"A 1930s Streamline Modern building on Agia Irini Square. K-Studio inside. The Athens that almost was."
Agia Irini Square. The pocket of Athens that became cool around 2015 — coffee, vintage, queues for brunch.
The Perianth is the building you noticed first: trapezoidal, curved, in a strange grey that registers as either dirty white or unfinished concrete depending on the hour. Built in the 1930s as offices and apartments, classified under Streamline Modern — the local cousin of Bauhaus and Art Deco. It sat empty for decades. The Sgoumpopoulos family — Alexandra, Anastasia, Konstantinos — took it on in the late 2010s and gave it to K-Studio, the Athens firm best known for Scorpios on Mykonos. The hotel opened in November 2018.
K-Studio's move was to let the building dictate. The trapezoidal footprint became short radial corridors instead of long straight ones. Glass-brick partitions let the central lounges glow. Terrazzo, brass, walnut, slim black metal frames. Faded jade and muted teal on the walls. A staff uniform by Sophia Kokosalaki, the late Greek designer who understood how to dress a room as well as a body.
Thirty-eight rooms, all with balconies, the cheaper ones facing the square. A Zen Center one floor down for meditation and martial arts — free to use. Anther on the ground for dinner. Book the penthouse for the rooftop pool with the Acropolis on one side and Lycabettus on the other. Walk to everything from here.
2018
Since
38
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