House in an Olive Grove / vardastudio

House in an Olive Grove / vardastudio

+ 9

Text description provided by the architects. The owner of the house was brought up in Athens in a small 60sqm city apartment. He used to spend his summer holidays in Cyprus where his mother is from. His memories of his grandparents’ traditional stone home were a big inspiration to how he wanted his family home to be but in a new, contemporary way.

The house is built in a plot full of olive trees. The architect’s main goal was to protect as many trees as possible and integrate the residence. Hence the residence is “inserted” among the olives, and sits surrounded by a sea of silver-green.

The building consists of areas covering one’s basic needs: On the ground floor, there are three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen with a living room in an open-plan space. There is an extra room isolated on the first floor, which is used as a sanctuary for different uses, mainly yoga exercise, whilst looking out to the horizon.

The shape of the house creates an internal courtyard that functions as a connecting link between the two basic volumes of the building. The one side accommodates the three rooms and on the other side the common areas. The courtyard is big enough to ensure the two volumes function separately without mixing their uses.

All the building volumes and interior spaces open out onto the courtyard, which connects all these spaces practically and visually. At the same time, strategically placed openings reveal the olive trees, which can then be seen from the interior of the house as well as from the courtyard, to make the latter feel more open and connected to the environment outside the house.