Capannone S.A.M.

At the corner of function and form, this rectangular structure is a robust essay in mid-century industrial architecture. Its ground floor is an unabashedly open space, a bus depot defined by four irregular rows of concrete pillars. Above, a mezzanine gallery overlooks the void, flanked by offices. The engineering ambition is clear: a single-span reinforced concrete slab, thirty by forty metres, unsupported by intermediate columns, held by iron chains.

The façade is tripartite and deliberate. A base of chiselled local stone supports a central section of alternating masonry and tall vertical windows, their iron and glass frames arranged in a modular grid. Glass blocks fill the corner partitions. A bold, projecting cornice, in the same stone as the base, crowns the whole. The building’s corners are literally ‘pierced’ with narrow, tall openings filled with glass blocks, a motif repeated on the smaller gable end and the canopy over the main entrance. It is a depot that does not hide its purpose, but articulates it with clarity and a certain muscular grace.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.