In 'Astral Weeks', Athens-based studio Oblique reimagines an industrial void as both a home and an exhibition space—a place where domestic life and art coexist in fluid dialogue.
Tucked within a 1970s postwar office building, the project navigates the architectural constraints of its typology: externalized plumbing, rigid heating systems, and the spatial limitations of a structure never intended for living.
The intervention unfolds as an exercise in division and contrast. A strict perimeter is established, carving the space into two distinct realms. The outer zone, a three-dimensional domestic threshold, rises above an elevated platform concealing the infrastructure—plumbing, sewage, climate control—while simultaneously defining intimate spaces. Through a choreography of sliding panels, the periphery dissolves and reforms, modulating privacy, creating an enfilade of rooms that can function in isolation or open into a sequence of interconnected thresholds. This is not a static arrangement but a living architecture, one that invites movement, exploration, and the fluid interplay between domesticity and exhibition.
At the heart of the composition, a void. Unencumbered by columns, this central space remains fluid, adaptable—an architectural pause waiting to be activated. It is a neutral ground, its openness amplified by a continuous glass façade that invites the city inside. Here, the ephemeral nature of an exhibition space finds a home within the permanence of a dwelling, where walls exist not as barriers but as frames for shifting narratives.
Despite the deliberate separation of function—home and gallery, frame and void—the design ultimately resists hierarchy. The perimeter does not merely enclose; it generates depth, offering unexpected vantage points, creating an internal courtyard where daily rituals unfold in quiet conversation with the art of living. In this way, Astral Weeks becomes more than an architectural intervention—it is a meditation on thresholds, on the delicate tension between containment and openness, and on the ever-evolving nature of space itself.
