The project Landmarks of Connection by Thomas Tsoukalas and Archer Cultural Projects, was awarded at the Grail Awards 2026

The third edition of the GRAIL AWARDS concluded on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, with the awards ceremony held at the packed Ioannis Despotopoulos Auditorium of the Athens Conservatoire. The GRAIL Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting Awards, produced by Vassilios Bartzokas and Dimitris Fakinos, brought together the domestic creative scene, with a steady and determined focus on promoting the international outreach of Greek architecture, both within Greece and beyond its borders.

The project Landmarks of Connection by Thomas Tsoukalas, in collaboration with the firm Archer Cultural Projects, was awarded in the Exhibition Spaces category at the Grail Awards 2026. Seven photographers capture, through their lens, the facilities of specific infrastructures – building complexes and public spaces, regarded as modern meeting points. Each photographer worked based on a specific brief regarding the conceptual approach with which they would stage their shots. 70 photographs were selected and presented in the temporary exhibition.

The Former Public Tobacco Factory was selected to host the exhibition “Landmarks of Connection”. A single open space of approximately 500 sq.m. Maximum height of approximately 6 m. Extensive glazing on two of the four sides of the space. Austere, Doric clarity. Industrial character.

Architectural design elements

A slender, extensive space frame is introduced into the hall to organize the layout of the exhibition and simultaneously define the display positions for the photographic material. It creates an imagined space within the broader space: an almost immaterial pavilion.

The installation becomes the shared design code of the entire exhibition, regardless of the specificities of each position, each micro-environment created for every photographer.

The space frame develops at a scale proportionate to the size of the hall, a scale that is then echoed in the arrangement of the photographic works and the remaining configurations.

The space frame is a self-supporting assembled structure consisting of i) 23 identical triangular sheet-steel columns, 4m high, resting on triangular bases and tapering as they rise, 25 horizontal aluminum beams connecting the columns and 35 metal frames for displaying photographs.

The extensive space frame defines distinct subspaces. At the same time, it outlines a central route – a main street along which the individual spaces unfold – leading to the common meeting ground. The restraint of the structures and the strategic positioning of the photographs constantly produce different vanishing points, with parallel, overlapping, or intersecting elements in the foreground, middle ground, and background.

Facts & Credits 
Project title Landmarks of Connection
Typology Photography temporary exhibition
Location Former Public Tobacco Factory, Athens
Architect Thomas Tsoukalas
Assistant architect Georgia Sagmatopoulou
Implementation Archer Cultural Projects
Client Lamda Development
Curator Fotis Tsimelas
Project Management V+O Group I SEC Newgate
Graphic Design Yannis Fetanis
Photography  Pygmalion Karatzas
Text provided by the architects