SPLIT HOUSE

CHIOS ISLAND, GREECE _2007

The project is a vacation house for a three member family. Theodore Vassilakis, a financial manager at “Tsakos” one of the worlds leading Greek Shipping companies who married Eleonora, a successful Greek folksinger at 80s, was living with their daughter for many years in the United States before they decided to move permanently in Greece.

Theodore’s origin is from Chios Island at Eastern Aegean. The uniqueness of the island is synonymous around the world with the famous mastic that grows in the south. Kardamyla village, where he grew up, has its own port that over the generations highlighted many important ship-owners. It is said that Christopher Columbus recruited from the island mariners and cartographers for his travels.

Concept sketches

The summer house presents a single storey to the street, with a second floor to the seaward side. A slightly curved ‘Wall’ that follows the contours of the landscape splits the house into functional zones, leaving service areas at the back. Entry is via a dark narrow staircase, behind the ‘Wall’, downwards into a double-height Atrium that leads to unexpected views towards Kardamyla port, Agean pelagos and the hills. This dramatically compressed space and the combination of darkness and light, creates a powerful experience of arrival.

The Atrium, set below a steeply angled roof plane, is an internal street with accesses to public areas, staircases leading to the first floor rooms, and introversive doors and windows. Conceived like a renovation of the past, a rusted steel Bridge that has been collapsed over time, hosts the main bedroom and the cantilevered bookcase.

Living room

Fireplace

Cantilevered bookcase

Masonry local stone shelters bedrooms, while dinning area and living room open up to the garden and pool, through extended glazing with louvers for sufficient solar protection in summer

Dinning area

Staircase towards 1st floor sleeping room

Corridor towards 1st floor sleeping room