In a plot of 400 sqm, in the suburbs of Ierapetra, a town in south Crete in Greece, a building with a total area of about 320 square metres was designed.
The brief required a building that would include three individual units with a common basement. So, the building above the basement will consist of a private residence, an office, and a guest house on the top floor.
The central idea in the design is that the building is organised into three levels above the basement. Those levels are defined by slabs sitting on stonewalls and circular columns penetrating the building from bottom to top, so that every space is organised around them with freedom. All slabs are also attached to a decentralised vertical core which constitutes the general vertical circulation of the building.
The long stonewall, on the ground floor, separates the main residence from the office, another stone wall ensures privacy from the neighbouring house and a cube of stones defines the entrance to the office separately from the access to the residential part. On the second floor, the stone wall clarifies again the boundaries between the guest house and the neighbour, while it supports the edge of the upper slab.
On the ground floor, the fence is the de facto external wall of the building, which creates privacy from the passers-by, while it defines a garden for the inhabitants of the house and the office. The garden is an extension of the interior floor and not a separate entity. The glazing, on every floor, only sets uncertain boundaries between interior and exterior spaces and it does not separate them.
On the first floor, the extension of the floor slab becomes a balcony for the bedrooms and protects the lower floor from the sun during summer. On the edge of the balconies, a system of louvres is developed that works as a filter for privacy and the morning sunlight in the bedrooms, while it can be a barrier to the strong wind. Those louvres can be opened towards the neighbourhood by the inhabitants to allow more daylight in the rooms or to enjoy the view of the nearby mountains in the east.
On the second floor, the floor slab of the guestroom extends again to create a larger exterior terrace and provide shading to the lower floor. On the edge, a zone of vegetation surrounds the exterior activities. Finally, the upper slab is the ceiling of the guestroom and extends including a system of shading louvres over the external terrace to shape a pergola.
The white plaster as the main material of the surfaces, makes the building to adapt in the neighborhood, while the earthy colours of the louvres, the beige plaster of the fence wall and the stonework relate to the nearby olive groves and mountains.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
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INTERIOR DESIGN
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PROJECT SUPERVISION
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LANDSCAPE DESIGN
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LIGHTING DESIGN
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ΤΕLFORD 46 ARCHITECTS DESIGN TEAM
ARIS THEODORIDIS
MANOS TSELAS
IRO MATTHEOU
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
DIMITRIS THEODORIDIS
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
CHARALAMPOS POULIS
CONTRACTOR
PYLON DEVELOPMENT
3D VISUALIZATION
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