Kokkinou-Kourkoulas Architects

Maria Kokkinou and Andreas Kourkoulas founded their practice in 1987. The completion of the Benaki Museum at Pireos Street (Award, Institute of Greek Architects 2006), and the publication of a theme issue of the annual review Architecture in Greece, both in 2004, has confirmed their prominent standing among Greek architects. Their work, featured in many exhibitions nationally and internationally, extends the tradition of regional modernism with critical attention paid not only to site and program but to the expression of broader humanist values. They affirm the role of architecture in creating the stable framework of boundaries and spatial relationships that support and make intelligible everyday public and private life, in all its richness of rhythm, movement and patterns of co-awareness. The visual form of their buildings varies considerably, but it is always a memorable expression of the underlying spatial qualities of architecture, with equal emphasis on formal order, material texture and the quality of light. Kourkoulas is Associate Professor of Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens.