GREECE WATER, STONE, AND WHITE VOLUMES INTERACT WITH THE LANDSCAPE AND THE LIGHT
Near the port and town of Antiparos, Argyro Pouliovali’s Athenian firm Arp-Architecture Research Practice has created a home that preserves the genius loci through essential, immaculate volumes and measured proportions, in dialogue with the landscape and the powerful light of the Cyclades.
The project renovates a pre-existing reinforced concrete frame structure (a legacy of a regulation that allowed building permits to be extended by completing even just the load-bearing structure) built years earlier and left unfinished. Around this structure, the firm has modeled a home inspired by the game of Tetris: a game of interlocking volumes and minimal geometries that defines a simple and logical layout, leaving room for dramatic contrasts between solids and voids, light and shadow.
The house is located on a flat lot, surrounded on three sides by other buildings: a location that requires abandoning the extroversion typical of coastal architecture in favor of greater introversion, preserving the intimacy of the home. Opening only to the west, towards a protected forest area, the complex consists of a series of single-story buildings and a two-level structure to the northeast, arranged around the central pool as if it were the beating heart of the composition, which flows through it, weaving its spaces. A play of contrasting materials—clear plaster surfaces that reflect light and substantial masonry masses in local stone—establish a strong material connection with the context.
Particular attention is paid to sustainability, thanks to passive design and efficient technologies that reduce the project’s environmental impact: from cross-ventilation and thermal insulation strategies to the use of the staircase as a « cooling tower » (thanks to the skylight at the top); from photovoltaic panels to native vegetation that fosters biodiversity while screening nearby hotels.
Source: Domusweb.it – Photo Credits: Giulio Ghirardi Studio
