MPNYC Turns Adaptive Reuse into a Catalyst for Invention at Two Piraeus Warehouses

When architects encounter an ageing building that has been repeatedly altered and is neither protected nor deemed historically significant, the usual choices tend towards replacement or selective preservation: demolish and start again, or retain what is structurally useful and introduce something recognisably new. At two projects in Piraeus, architect Andreas Kostopoulos of New York-based design studio Manhattan Projects (MPNYC) proposes a more nuanced alternative. Rather than deciding which period of a building’s history deserves to survive, he treats its successive transformations as material to work with, using the principles of adaptive reuse as a catalyst for invention.

The approach underpins the transformation of two former 19th-century port warehouses on the same city block: MPNYC at Polydefkous, the studio’s newly completed office, showroom and gallery, and Castor Place, a multidisciplinary cultural venue. Although differing considerably in scale and character, they operate almost as counterparts, each exploring how old and new can coexist without either being allowed to dominate. Serendipitously, the streets that lend the two projects their names honour Polydeuces (Pollux) and Castor, the twin brothers of Greek mythology, adding another layer to the architectural dialogue between them.

Architect Andreas Kostopoulos stands against the weathered masonry of Castor Place, giving a sense of scale to the former warehouse’s tall, time-worn interior. In the foreground, a slender metal display table holds publications and material samples, while daylight from above picks out the wall’s accumulated layers of stone, plaster and structural traces.

Andreas Kostopoulos founder of Manhattan Projects (MPNYC). Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

The original rusted spiral staircase rises dramatically against rough stonework, accompanied by a small metal stair bridging its first step. Nearby, a tall vintage timber storage unit has been repurposed for books and material samples, retaining another utilitarian remnant of the building’s former workshop life.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A narrow passage framed by exposed brick leads into Castor’s ground-floor workspace, where simple black chairs and metal tables sit against the continuous grey floor. In the background, a tall timber shelving unit introduces warmth amid the building’s raw brick, stone and concrete fabric. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

MPNYC at Polydefkous

MPNYC multipurpose studio at Polydefkous occupies a building that originally functioned as a single storage facility serving the nearby port. As requirements changed, it was subdivided into smaller storage units and subsequently occupied by repair workshops. Concrete columns, floor slabs and mezzanines were inserted to exploit its cavernous height while doorways were bricked up. Further modifications followed in the 1990s, when an industrial-equipment showroom concealed the concrete ceiling behind foam boards and the original timber roof beneath a dropped ceiling; later, a series of smaller rooms was carved out for a film-production company.

Instead of peeling these additions away to recover some supposedly authentic original condition, Kostopoulos approached the building as a found object, working primarily through subtraction. Suspended ceilings were removed to expose the 1950s concrete structure and 150-year-old fir roof, while masonry walls were cleaned and left exposed. Blocked doorways were reopened to bring daylight deeper inside and fitted with minimal steel pivot doors, while reclaimed bricks were repurposed for partitions, thresholds and window sills. Remarkably, the original timber shutters, buried inside the walls since the 1870s, were recovered, restored and returned to use.

A high-level view reveals the building’s layered vertical organisation, with the concrete mezzanine cutting through the original masonry shell beneath the exposed timber roof. Below, a vintage cane rocking chair sits beside tall windows, while aligned openings establish long sightlines through the renovated ground floor. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

Layers of stone, brick and concrete frame a meeting area furnished with slender black chairs and a transparent glass table. Exposed ductwork and electrical conduits reinforce the building’s industrial character, while the restrained contemporary furniture allows the richly textured fabric of the former port warehouse to remain visually dominant. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A closer view of the original rusted spiral staircase highlights its patinated steel construction and slender curved balustrade against the rough stone wall. A small freestanding metal stair negotiates the change in level below, while a vintage timber shelving unit occupies the adjoining bay.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A rusted spiral staircase and tall timber shelving inhabit the exposed masonry shell of MPNYC’s Piraeus studio. Stone, brick, weathered wood and oxidised metal retain their patina against the seamless grey floor, exemplifying the renovation’s approach of incorporating traces of successive occupations rather than erasing them.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A floor-to-ceiling timber shelving system displays material samples, books, papers and glass vessels against a patchwork wall of exposed brick and masonry. Its warm, weathered wood complements the imperfect historic surfaces, turning a utilitarian storage element into a showcase of Castor’s working material library. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A vintage bentwood-and-cane rocking chair sits beside one of the reopened street-facing openings, surrounded by exposed stone and concrete. Decorative ironwork survives above the new glazing, adding another historical layer, while daylight washes across the seamless grey floor and the chair’s sculptural curved frame.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

Exposed stone, brick and concrete columns frame a sequence of rooms connected by reopened original doorways. The uninterrupted grey floor lends visual coherence to the varied masonry, while daylight entering from the right accentuates the irregular surfaces and evidence of the warehouse’s successive alterations.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A silvery, liquid-metal-finished wall frames a rough-edged opening onto the building’s older masonry interior. The long axial view layers smooth contemporary surfaces with exposed stone, while glimpses of black chairs and a cane rocking chair draw the eye through a succession of interconnected spaces. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

This approach brings different periods into deliberate coexistence. Rough stone and brickwork sit alongside concrete columns and slabs; weathered timber rafters hover above crisp white partitions; industrial metalwork meets smooth cement flooring. Furniture and fittings follow the same logic: old timber tool-storage cabinets serve as bookshelves, metal props from Castor Place’s inaugural exhibition have been repurposed as tables and display units, while a rusted spiral staircase, aged wooden shelving and vintage cane seating sit comfortably alongside more precise contemporary interventions. Most striking is the corner gallery space, the part of the building most extensively altered over time, where walls, ceiling, exposed services and a new spiral staircase are enveloped in a silvery liquid-metal finish.

Described by the studio as a “romantic palimpsest”, the resulting interior feels unexpectedly coherent, its irregularities, scars and material shifts subsumed into a new spatial language. The building’s resistance to a fixed identity extends to its programme. Meeting rooms can become exhibition or workshop spaces, while the kitchen can double as a model-making room or serve as a pop-up café or restaurant. Kostopoulos envisages the building as a physical platform where practitioners across art, craft and design can work, exhibit and collaborate, an ambition that will take its first public form with a photography exhibition in October 2026.

The corner gallery space takes on an almost monochromatic character, with walls, ceiling, exposed services and a new spiral staircase enveloped in a silvery liquid-metal finish. Daylight from tall street-facing windows accentuates subtle variations in texture, transforming the warehouse’s most extensively altered section into a distinctly contemporary counterpoint to its raw masonry spaces. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A new metal spiral staircase rises through the monochromatic gallery, surrounded by slender vertical rods that give the structure an almost cage-like appearance. Its metallic surfaces echo the silvery finish enveloping the walls and ceiling, while exposed conduits and cable trays reinforce the space’s industrial character.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

On the upper level, crisp white partitions retained from the building’s later occupation form a sequence of gallery spaces beneath the exposed 150-year-old timber roof. The weathered beams and boards provide a striking counterpoint to the pared-back walls, while the curved metal balustrade marks the spiral staircase below. — MPNYC studio at Polydefkous. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

Castor Place

Castor Place applies the same philosophy at a more monumental scale. Occupying an 1850s stone warehouse later converted into a nightclub, the project juxtaposes its restored masonry base with a 1990s rooftop extension, reimagined as a monolithic metallic volume through a liquid-metal coating, the same finish that envelops the gallery space at Polydefkous street, establishing a subtle material dialogue between the two projects. A narrow clerestory visually separates the two eras, making the upper structure appear to hover above the old cornice, while a nine-metre-tall vertical window floods the cavernous interior with daylight. Inside, a thin layer of coarse stucco unifies masonry, brick infill, structural bracing and later interventions without erasing their different textures, lending the soaring space an almost cathedral-like atmosphere.

Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

Vertical and horizontal glazing meet across the textured façade of Castor Place’s upper addition, breaking the otherwise monolithic volume into an asymmetrical composition. The clean window geometry contrasts with the deeply weathered brickwork and masonry visible along the retained building edge below.

Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A wider elevation of Castor Place reveals the contrast between the building’s irregular historic masonry and the restrained geometry of MPNYC’s upper addition. Horizontal ribbon windows and a tall vertical glazed opening cut through the pale textured volume, while the original stone façade remains prominently legible below.

Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
Custom-made aluminum doors by Stefania Strouza at Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
Custom-made aluminum doors by Stefania Strouza at Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
Installation view, "Casting Water" by Stefania Strouza at Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

A doorway framed by metal panels with irregular, crust-like reliefs offers a layered view into the main hall and the “Casting Water” exhibition beyond. The composition encapsulates Castor Place’s material approach, setting rough masonry and tactile contemporary surfaces against the precise geometry of its architectural interventions. — Installation view, "Casting Water" by Stefania Strouza at Castor Place. Photography by Yiorgos Kaplanidis.

This dialogue between architecture, material and memory was further articulated by Castor Place’s inaugural exhibition, Βαθυμετρία / Casting Water, created with Athens-based artist Stefania Strouza and architect-curator Giulio Margheri. Among its defining interventions is a pair of monumental cast-aluminium entrance doors by Strouza, conceived as a permanent part of the building. Their textured reliefs draw on bathymetry, the mapping of underwater topographies, connecting the material fluidity of cast aluminium with Piraeus’s maritime identity while echoing the weathered irregularities of the surrounding stonework.