Koula Pratsika’s School of Dance and home
Today the National School of Dance

53 Omirou St, 1932-34

Architect
Georges Kontoleon (1896-1952)



The building that housed the Koula Pratsika School of Dance and her residence is one of the outstanding products of interwar modernism. With its spare plasticity, its harmonisation with the environment and ideal balance between form, function and construction, it Hellenises the minimalist architecture of Adolf Loos in an ideal way. It was built on the slopes of Lycabettus Hill, in a steeply descending, narrow-fronted lot 10 x 27 m. on Omirou St. Access to it had not as yet been created. It was the expression of the owner’s desire to accommodate her School, a pioneering effort in Greece at that time.
The building has a ground floor and two upper floors. The entrance is on the ground floor level through a courtyard with a stone fence. On the first floor was the School’s main hall and set in on the second floor was the owner’s residence.
The volume of the stark white building is plain and rectangular. It was built of a reinforced concrete skeleton and plastered brickwork. The façades are treated with large uniform openings, expressing the desire of the pioneering dance teacher for a building that was "simple, solid and bright". Many celebrities in the fields of art and architecture praised Kontoleon’s building. A characteristic remark was made by Dimitris Pikionis: "The Koula Pratsika School building is worthy of her high ideals … which is why its significance is cultural."

TRANSPORTATION