15°

15° is the necessary rotation that the present building needs in order to accurately frame the view towards Makria Mytis Bay. By turning the imaginary axis of the building by 15°, we created all the courtyard spaces and the external configurations.

The building develops in parallel and vertical axes, creating the characteristic cubic volumes of the Cycladic residential complexes. To accentuate this geometric arrangement, 3 more parallel walls are added. Two white walls extend towards the entrance of the plot and enclose the staircase leading to the living room of the house and the third, stone, wall on the north face receives the staircase leading to the first floor room.

The entrance is on the back side of the building and is protected from the strong northerly winds by two large white walls. From there the visitor can either enter the guest house, or the central residence which on the ground floor includes a single kitchen-living room and the bedroom with an integrated bathroom.

The reference point of the project is the palm tree placed in the now enclosed courtyard of the guest house. Projecting through the white walls, it comes to harmonize with the Cycladic landscape and complete the scene of an extreme summer nostalgia.

Due to the topography the basement with the guesthouses has access to the lower level of the garden, which is planted with scattered fruit trees. The combination of the small openings of the building, with the stone wall that receives the pergola and the deck, with the smells from the plants and the labyrinthine configuration of the garden with hard surfaces and gravel creates a romantic interiority taken from Monet’s paintings.

In the design, a lot of attention was paid to the details of the construction. The pergolas are a special metal construction, with a non-symmetrical layout and filled with local reeds.

Furthermore, the railing of the staircase is “hooked” to the cement of its treads and has the minimum possible cross-sections to be safe and at the same time extremely minimalistic. The building acquires a base of exposed stonework to reduce the visible volume of the structure, and the stone walls extend into the relief to create living spaces and outdoor courtyards, plantings and pathways.

The interior space flows to the exterior, leaving its imprint on the relief, constantly accompanying the choice to turn the building by 15°.