Apartment Building

17 Irodou Attikou, Athens, 1959-60

Architect
Takis Ch. Zenetos (1926-1977)



This apartment block designed by Takis Zenetos is another remarkable work of Greek minimalist architecture on the threshold of the 1960s. Built in the most expensive district of Athens, near the present day Presidential Palace (former New Palace, 1891-1897, architect E. Ziller), it was the first building in the quarter to be governed by the compositional and morphological regulations of the prevailing International Style, which have not since then lost their value.
The building consists of five typical floors with one apartment per floor and two inset floors that constitute one residence. The ground floor is on pilotis and contains only the glass-walled entrance. The apartments have open plans with very few permanent walls and many movable partitions that provide flexibility in the layout of the space. The beautiful view from the apartments is framed within the slabs of the floors and ceilings, which create the illusion of an internal and external continuity.
The free interior layout is expressed on the elevations, where the horizontal elements of the slabs dominate with their free projections, and large glass surface. The abstract elevations are treated with minimal but luxury materials: white Dionysus marble, aluminium and crystal.
The volume of the building with the marked horizontality of its slabs and projections look as though it is suspended over the pilotis on the ground floor, which stands reflected in a shallow pool.

TRANSPORTATION