Publications: Wallpaper* / Divisare / Archdaily / Dezeen / Domus / Lifo / Rizzoli
Award: 2020 Greek Architecture Award
Parallel rooms are created by retaining walls, a common feature in the surrounding Mediterranean landscape. Each volume sits at a different elevation following the topography and contains a dedicated program. A stair makes the slope flow into the house; the interior experience is a viewing apparatus onto the sea.
Focused on a large opening to the south, the spaces contemplate the sea and are complemented by a smaller northern one towards the slope. These openings also provide efficient cross ventilation for each room. The concept of “aggregate” was a generator of form and selection of materials. Aggregation of volumes, aggregate in the raw concrete walls, in the terrazzo floor, roofs filled with gravel and plants.
Sliding doors through the double walls mark the passage from one space to the next. The notion of a “cut” through the solid concrete walls is emphasized by the grey marble of the thresholds. Facing the road, the east and west facades have no openings; this further protects the interior from the sun. A barely visible configuration of spaces conveys privacy with maximum views towards the sea. Materials were used that are very familiar in older Greek residential interiors. Here, terrazzo floors, marble and plaster render are found in spaces, forms and combinations not so familiar.
Location: Skiathos Island, Greece
Completion: 2016
Area: 200 sqm
Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos
