Salamina: land and sea, city and nature. On the largest island of the Saronic Gulf, a residence creates the conditions for a daily life at home, away from home. The tranquillity of the countryside becomes a component of the atmosphere in every space of the residence in Salamina by AREA architecture office.
Styliani Daouti, Giorgos Mitroulias and Michalis Raftopoulos wanted to build a flexible residence that is in open dialogue with nature, with rooms that “breathe” and are bathed in natural light.
As they explain, the house may give the impression of being “introverted” on the outside, but its interior spaces allow the elements of nature to shape its character, making it flexible.
Area Architectural Group states:
“The lack of external points of reference and the indeterminacy of the surrounding settlement, street boundary and site boundary turn the house inward. The inwardness anchors the house around the existing olive tree and the old well, creating courtyards that harness the microclimate and define the countryside from within. As opposed to the neighbouring houses in the settlement that have formed through an ‘additive’ process of improvised extensions, the house follows a reverse logic of voids, subtracted from an initial volume”.
“On the exterior, the solid walls give the impression of a monolithic construction, which nevertheless hides a large central courtyard inside. A narrow gate leads from the street to the interior, and a second one at the opposite end leads to a small garden and pool at the back of the plot”.
“Inside the courtyard four pairs of sliding glass windows divide the space into four: two enclosed and two open-air rooms house the main living spaces and leave a smaller entrance courtyard and a larger one with an olive tree. As the windows are moved, the external stability of the monolithic building shifts and the balance between indoor and outdoor changes,” the architects note.
Earthy and pastel tones, clean lines, wood, small bold details, plants, minimal decorative elements compose the setting of an everyday life with relaxing notes that allows the body “escape” from the daily routine. This is where slow living takes on its true dimensions.
The serene atmosphere of the countryside becomes a component of the ambience in every room of the Salamis residence/ Photo: Yiorgis Yerolymbos
“The four walls around the central courtyard posses all of the necessary household fixtures within the niches bordering the kitchen and living room. Private rooms are embedded like cavities in the outer wings of the house, where additional small courtyards allow the light and air to infiltrate. Inside the courtyard, a light-weight metal structure functions as a foil to the thick surrounding walls and reinforces the dual nature of the house: both fortified and porous, solid and transparent, monolithic and light,” notes the architectural team.
The house, painted with rust coloured boat primer, is a tribute to the island’s maritime history, to the shipbuilding and repair zone, to the small ferries that connect Salamina with the mainland.
Salamis summer house
Architects: AREA (Architecture Research Athens): Styliani Daouti, Giorgos Mitroulias, Michalis Raftopoulos
Structural engineer: Thanos Giannimaras, Nikos Rossis
Mechanical: Panos Kamboukos
Photos: Yiorgis Yerolymbos
Landscape architecture: Anna Ambatzi, AREA (Architecture Research Athens)
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