Necklace House
The site is located on a plateau amid the steep, rocky slopes of southern Crete, overlooking panoramic views to the south towards the Libyan Sea, while to the north it is surrounded by arid mountains. Until recently, the area remained almost untouched.
Residential architecture in this remote setting evokes a personal “lost Arcadia” of the architect and, by extension, of its future inhabitant: an encounter with the natural landscape as an unattainable ideal, and a longing for a lost mode of connection with each particular place, brought about by the mono-thematic culture of tourism. The Necklace House constitutes a design study in the search for archetypal forms and the use of traditional architectural materiality within the contemporary context of inhabiting a wild landscape.
The intention was to design an enclosed residence, as protected as possible from wind and sun while remaining simultaneously open to the view. Throughout the design process, the primary references were the fortified character of monastic architecture in Crete, with its austere rhythmic openings, warm-toned plasterwork, and Venetian Baroque influences.
In design terms, two building volumes—the main residence and the guesthouse—are articulated around an internal garden enclosed by a circular paved surface, in a manner similar to the way precious stones are set within a necklace. The spaces of the residence are conceived as a series of repetitive, homogeneous cubic “beads”, connected by an imaginary chain expressed through the circular movement around the central garden. The panoramic experience of the landscape is intensified by the external staircases, which extend this circular movement onto the roof terrace of the main residence.
The final layer of the residence’s natural plasterwork consists of a colored hydraulic mortar based on brick flour and Thera earth. All metal structures, shading elements, the bench, and the external doors are made of weathered steel, which was left to oxidise naturally on-site during construction, exposed to the elements, and was subsequently treated in situ to stabilise its corrosion. Earthy tones uniformly cover the walls, ceilings, and floors throughout the interior. Combined with the oblique geometries that emerge within the residence and the sky, framed by every opening, they evoke a dreamlike atmosphere reminiscent of that found in the paintings of Surrealist artists.
