Project: Crete Vacation Home
Architects: Paly Architects
Team: Nikos Lykoudis, Ismene Papaspiliopoulou, Konstantinos Platyrrachos
Location: Keramoti, Greece
Building Surface: 80.00 sq.m.
Photographer: George Anastassakis
Just outside the area Livadia Kissamou, in an arid and wild landscape where the air and the sea have rounded rocks and large boulders, a house was built in the place of an existing building- ruin that was there since 1900.
The aim was to integrate it into the landscape, and the adoption of methods of construction of old buildings in the area, so as to achieve an accommodation fully integrated like ‘growing’ from the earth.
The bearing masonry is from local stones. The lintels and window frames are made of solid wood iroko. The semicircular stone wall with built-in oven and outdoor kitchen, protects from the usual north wind of the region, and with ground relief, planting, built-in benches, furniture, fences, etc. supplement the natural continuation of the wider area.
Natural materials and traditional elements in earth tones were used. Local stone, unpainted metal, untreated wood, kourasanit, cement in soil color, wicker in shutters, pergolas and fence, tiles of baked clay, wooden planks on the floors.
The shaped floor around the house with an irregular finish, as specified by the mastic trees, in color similar to the soil, so as to obtain the continuity. Pebbles on the roof and parts of the yard as a continuation of the beach.
An accommodation, a modern cabin in the wilderness where only the sound of the sea, the wind and birds is heard.
