Vacation House K
Peloponnese, Greece
2023
The study focuses on designing a vacation house on a coastal property in the northwestern Peloponnese, near Kyllini. The main aim of the architectural design as a research is not just to create a holiday residence, but to establish a shelter that redefines the inhabitant’s relationship with the “topos”.
Starting with a detailed survey of the plot topography as well as its dominant relationship with the sea and the horizon line, the foundational precepts of design are discerned. Access is made from above through the given natural landscape, leading down to a small cove and the beach. The building is seamlessly integrated along this path.
Three monolithic walls made of rammed earth create the conditions for shaping an artificial floor proficient in accommodating human habitation. By utilizing the material properties of the monolithic walls, all auxiliary functions of the residence are excavated and nested within the voluminous expanse of said walls, while lightweight walls shape the spaces to serve functional needs.
The residence is consummated through the imposition of an integrated lightweight roof structure that covers the enclosed spaces of the house, offering the necessary shade, proffering requisite shade conducive to the consummation of habitation within the “topos”.
Every architectural choice seek to negotiate the boundary between interior and exterior spaces, proposing a dwelling inextricably entwined with the phenomena that unveil the natural topos. Hence, arises the need for the thin roof structure, prefabricated analogously to the hull of a contemporary seafaring vessel, using the innovative Vacuum Infusion Process utilizing carbon composites, as an indivisible entity with no visible support elements.
This impression is intensified by the unified linear glass wall on the seaside, which seamlessly opens as it integrates entirely into the ground, rendering the roof not as conventional ceiling of the residence, but rather as a a floating piece of canvas shading an exterior space. A swimming pool is sited at the edge of the construction, merging with the landscape and sea, signifying a novel juncture of convergence between the artifactual and the natural facets of the topos