CIBA-GEIGY / FAMAR PHARMACEUTICAL COMPLEX

ANTHOUSA, GREECE

Located in Anthousa (east Attica), the complex was built to house the Greece headquarters of Ciba-Geigy. The premises were subsequently acquired by the Greek pharmaceutical multinational Famar. The Ciba-Geigy offices and pharma complex was awarded one of the 30 ex-aequo prizes for the best buildings in Greece of the 1973-1983 period.

The project consists of a number of buildings, some interconnected and some independent, totaling 12850m² and spread over a 35700m² site. They include an independent three-storey cum basement office building, the pharmaceutical plant proper, an energy building and a waste treatment plant.

The office building was designed around a central core that included all the “unelastic” functions – vertical circulation, toilets, copying rooms etc – thus leaving the remainder of each floor free for office uses. Although its north and south façades are identical, the addition of external movable louvers to the south façades only makes for two totally different aesthetic results.

The pharmaceutical plant consists of solid forms (tablets, capsules & powders) manufacturing areas as well as packaging and storage facilities. Together with their administration areas and laboratories they constitute the major building complex of the site. A technical floor extends over the whole of the manufacturing areas.

Supporting facilities include the energy building, secondary warehouses and the waste treatment plant. Energy building and pharmaceutical plant are interconnected through an overhead services bridge which becomes one of the dominant elements of the whole composition as it faces the entrance gates, thus immediately highlighting to the visitors the function of the facility.

The buildings are characterised by their exposed concrete surfaces and the bright yellow and orange elements of the openings – windows, window paneling, louvers and doors. Colour has also been extensively used on canopies and elements such as gutters and metal plates in order to emphasize the industrial character of the site.

The landscaping is centered around a part of the vineyard which originally covered the whole site. This was done in order to retain, albeit to a small extent, the memory of the fabled Attic landscape. A combination of trees such as cypresses, bitter oranges and palm trees, together with a wide variety of shrubs, have been added to the existing vineyard to create a varied external environment, creating breathing spaces between the buildings and enhancing their volumes.