THE DANCING HOUSE

The Dancing House, Vlado Milunic 1996

The Dancing House, in Czech: Tančící dům, is the nickname given to an office building in downtown Prague, at Rašínovo nábřeží 80. It was designed by Croatian architect Vlado Milunić in co-operation with Canadian architect Frank Gehry on a vacant riverfront plot where the previous building had been destroyed during the Bombing of Prague in 1945.

During the communist period little was actively done to maintain the beauty of the city's buildings. Due to the poor incentives offered by the regime workers would put up scaffolding and then disappear to moonlighting jobs. Low maintenance combined with the amount coal burnt during the communist period, a major source of air pollution that corroded and spotted building facades, gave Prague the look of a dark, dirty city.

True renovation began after the collapse of communism. The durability of renovations was aided by the fact that Prague converted almost entirely from coal heating in homes to electric heating.

The Dancing House now stands out among the Neo-Baroque, Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings for which Prague is famous.