Yiorgos & Eleni Maneta

26.05.2010 - 20.06.2010

Benaki Museum, Pireos St. Annexe, 138 Pireos & Andronikou St., Athens, Greece

Yiorgos and Eleni Maneta, architects, established a joint architectural practice and have worked together for more than thirty-five years. From their very first steps they evinced a particular individual design approach to dealing with space, which remains recognisable, vivid and dynamic to this day. 

The major portion of their work unfolds mainly in the suburbs of Athens. Their architecture is faithfully horizontal, seeking solutions by developing successive layers of masses on the ground, without this, in any way, precluding, on occasion, their incorporating certain distinct vertical elements by combining masses on various levels.

The buildings they construct are governed by an exquisite construction rationale and placed with respect for their environment, with which they maintain an ongoing exchange. Their buildings adopt simple materials for facings: stone and iron, as well as pure colours that emphasize and highlight the architectural details. Three basic colours that are recognisable signatures used by their architectural practice are red, yellow and blue. 

This monograph exhibition, a tribute to their oeuvre, will sketch out the nature of the practice through 28 select projects, utilizing 105 photographs of various sizes, sketches, perspective drawings and 9 models.