RESIDENCE IN SARONIDA
Status
Study
Location
Saronida, Attica
The location for this single-family holiday home is in Saronida on a beautiful but challenging plot of land with a very steep slope. The access road is from above to the northeast while the view to the sea is south-southwest, downhill. This is a favourable situation as the good orientation and the desired view are in the same direction. Since the plot is narrow, the design tried to maximize linearly the extent of the spaces - public or private - parallel to the road and the slope, so that the residence takes maximum advantage of the view and the sun.
The first and most significant characteristic of the plot, apart from the beauty of the view, is its great slope approaching 32º. This means that the ground is falling very quickly and by the depth of a typical domestic space - about 6-7m - the land has already fallen by one storey. The first defining moment when this problem becomes apparent is at the entry level.
Wanting to get off the street and into the house as soon as possible, that's probably where we'd want the public spaces to be - open plan living, dining, and kitchen. But, because of the slope, it would be practically impossible to develop a suitable outdoor space for the pool terrace there with the existing ground one floor below. Reversing our thinking, starting from the pool at ground level, and thus the living spaces as well, had as a consequence that the private spaces go up and there, unavoidably, also the entrance of the house. The entrance, faced with an atrium and a panoramic view of the sea, is welcoming to the visitor and encourages him to continue down. There the space is unified and, thanks to the continuous large glass sliding doors, becomes one with the garden and, in the distance, with the sea.
The physiognomy of the house does not pretend to belong to other places or times, nor does it attempt to integrate itself into the surrounding built cacophony. Its character derives from the location itself. The sloping land and sea opposite make manifest, and in turn, are manifested by a simple white volume that faces the sea casting its shadow over the inhabited land.