Economou has been a pattern card ofan intellectual architect, a thoughtful master who carefully meets customer’s challenges with solutions and does not strive for recognizability of his buildings or for showiness.

His clients appreciated this feature. Among them, for instance, Catholic schools (see the history of St. Mary’s School).

In this particular case, he dealt with the order of the richest family of Larnaca, who needed a comfortable house with a patio.

Pay attention to the characteristic features of modernism: an exposed concrete frame, a suspended slab-canopy over the entrance, vertical brise-soleils — all this was already manifested in the architect’s own house in Nicosia in 1959 and was taken as a model by the customer. 

The terrace surrounds the facade and is visible from the noisy street — as if this is not a house of rich people, who usually value privacy, but a house in the countryside. 

This was the culture of Cyprus half a century ago.

Pay attention to the state of preservation of old materials: even the blinds on the windows are original. 

This is both the quality of work and the quality of maintenance. 

By the way, their family’s old house is also wonderful. Now it is a restaurant, we’ll see it a little later.

P.S. Opposite the house in the alley is another example of modernism of the 1960s-1970s, the architect is unknown.

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