Koulis Panayiotakos and the Thirties Generation

The Blue Apartment Building was a great creative moment for Panayiotakos, who designed a number of noteworthy buildings in the 1930s, such as the school on the corner of Liosion and Sparti streets, the Spourgitis residence on Philopappou Hill, and the apartment block on the corner of Socratous and Satovriandou streets (where he lived in a space with furniture he had designed himself).

“He was my mother’s first cousin,” said Kardamitsi-Adami. “He was one of the two people who initiated me into architecture. The other, Achilleas Spanos, was also an architect.”

Panayiotakos’s archives are in the Benaki Museum’s Archive of Modern Greek Architecture, of which Kardamitsi-Adami is the director. “I often think about what happened to the Thirties Generation,” she said. “It is a big question why its high-quality work was not continued after the war. It was like a geyser that was swallowed up again.”

The Blue Apartment Building is still standing, but a thorough refurbishment is needed for this monument of urban Athens.

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