Ticket & shop office at Archaeological site of Olympia by FLUX office | won Merit at GRAIL Awards 2025

Flux Office designed a ticket & shop office of Archaeological site of Olympia won Merit in the Category of “Unrealized Architectural Study” at GRAIL Awards 2025. The main idea of the design is the lightness of the construction and the dialogue with the natural landscape.

The study of the area gave the architects the elements of inspiration: the clusters of trees, the difference in elevation between the Museum’s street and the site, the axis that connects the Museum with the entrance to the Archaeological site, the views towards the Hill of Kronos formed the basis for the architectural composition.

In addition, another goal of the proposal is to identify scattered existing uses supporting the Archaeological site, and house them under one “roof” with a unified design, contributing to the visual decongestion of the landscape.

This new building complex houses a ticket office, a shop, a cloakroom, staff restrooms with a disabled bathroom, surrounded by circulation and spaces for rest, under a single roof. Morphologically, the new building takes the form of a lightweight canopy under which a series of covered, semi-outdoor and outdoor spaces are arranged freely.

The roof consists of a single surface with very thin visible edges and holes for the passage of trees -three existing and two new-. Under this canopy, a series of platforms of different sizes accommodate the various functions which in turn arrange main and service spaces and organize public spaces of rest and circulation, introducing a social dimension. At the same time, these levels, in a stepped configuration, create a bridge that brings the visitor from the level of the street that connects the Museum to the entrance of the Archaeological site to the secluded plateau at the foot of Kronos Hill.

Functionally, the building includes a Ticket Office for the Archaeological site, a Shop, Cloakroom with lockers and Restrooms.

The proposed materials are Marble slabs for all floors as well as the various integrated benches along the circulation areas, Zinc cladding for the upper part of the roof and clay colored CRC panels surrounded by glass surfaces for the walls.

Plans

Facts & Credits

Project title: Shop & Ticket Office Archaeological Site of Olympia

Project location: Archaeological Site of Olympia

Architecture: Flux Office – Eva Manidaki, Thanassis Demiris, Efthimis Dougas, Themis Istatiadis, Ramin Antoniadis

Award: Merit at GRAIL Awards

Statics: Vassilis Kassimis

Mechanical engineering: Conap – Andreas Psaroudakis

Operator: Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia ODAP – Hellenic Organization of Cultural Resources Development

Text: Provided by the authors