Situated in Kypseli, Athens, the project imagines a theatre transformed from jewellery to furniture and architecture. The theatre is an allegorical response to the question of what true luxury in the neighbourhood is, against a background of mass modernisation and a growing refugee population. In the building, material values are irrelevant to luxury. Instead of gems and gold, the local tradition of jewellery-making and the neighbourhood’s famous bitter oranges are considered the true jewels of Kypseli. The theatre collects oranges as tickets, promoting socialisation and the appreciation of local environment.

During the day, the building functions as a workshop that teaches jewellery-making; after 6pm it transforms into a theatre. Taking inspiration from Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen, the theatre is a political arena that designates women as its leaders. The theatre makes a socio-political impact by way of its design decisions; the theatre aims to revive and reform Kypseli through crafting jewellery at the scale of furniture and ornamentation. Here, jewellery is worn as costume and the crafting process itself is put on as a theatrical performance, confronting the critique of contemporary Kypseli as a ‘concrete jungle’. Through the act and products of the jewellery-making craft, hedonism is reinterpreted as the freedom to embrace colours and ornamentation.