Dancing House

Opening ceremony held on 20 June 1996

The Dancing House (Tančící dům), also known as Ginger and Fred, is located in Prague, on the corner of the Rašín Embankment and Jirásek Square. Its nickname was inspired by the popular dance couple Fred Astaire a Ginger Rogers, popular in America between the two world wars. The build that had stood on its location was destroyed in an air raid during the Second World War. The land was empty for several decades. Vlado Milunić came up with the idea to develop it in a conversation with Václav Havel in the early 1990s, after the formation of the independent Czech Republic. According to the original plan, the building was meant to follow the line of the cultural institutions on the bank (Rudolfinum, Národní divadlo, Mánes). The Dutch insurance company Nationale Nederlanden (now ING) became the investor, bought the land and commissioned the famous American architect Frank Gehry.

The façade of the relatively small but distinctive building consists of two towers that evoke a dancing couple. The full tower ends with a dome of pipes and stainless mesh, while the other has a glass façade whose line resembles the wavy skirt of a dancer. The building stands next to the pavement. It has eight storeys and an asymmetric design of windows on the façade, aligning its floors with the neighbouring buildings, which have significantly higher ceilings and therefore fewer floors. There are offices in the building, as well as a restaurant (top floor), a café (ground floor) and conference rooms (ground floor and basement). The Czech-British architect Eva Jiřičná also participated in designing the interior. The dynamic and plastic building attracted a lot of attention. There have also been many critics (experts included) who still claim that the building damages Prague’s historic appearance. The Dancing House was also connected with the Velvet Revolution and eventually it became an icon of the 1990s.