© Elias Handelis

Architects: mX Architecture / Emmanuel Choupis
Location: Tinos, Greece
Project Managers: Romain Braida and Maud Henriot
Civil Engineer: Nikiforos Delasoudas
Site Area: 210 sqm
Project Area: 110 sqm
Budget: $300,000 Euro
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Elias Handelis

The land is located at the northwest edge of Hatzirados village on the Cyclades’ island of Tinos in the Hellenic Mediterranean. It contained vestiges of previous stonewall vernacular tissue including characteristic elements such as a wine press and a stone oven.

The aim of the project was to erect a contemporary house within a traditional [settlement] frame. The naturally sloping site has been sculpted in to three ‘plateaus’ following a decreasing height ascension rhythm. Residential uses occupy the entire terrain’s area. The existing tissue is preserved and enhanced to form the design’s pattern, an alternation of built up and void areas. Solid volumes are shaped as archetypal cubic prisms: tower, ‘slab’, block. They are positioned in order to complete the urban environment, the tower, for example, marking the village’s angle. The connection of the whole is ensured by open space continuity throughout courtyards and patios.

floor plan

Inspired by the typical use of local “cells” the prisms house three bedrooms, with en-suite bath spaces. Each one has a distinct view according to its shape or position: vertical for the tower regarding the sky, diagonal for the slab towards surrounding crests, panoramic for the block viewing neighboring ‘plateaus’. The collective life area –living and dining room, open kitchen- is unified and sheltered on the central level, allowing autonomy to the satellite “cells”.

Continuing local materials and construction high-quality expertise the vertical locally sourced natural stone masonry walls provide support to the horizontal raw-faced in-situ concrete roofs. Interior and exterior floors are finished in cement allowing all horizontal surfaces to present an identical aspect. The openings of the building are created from the disposition of structural elements, differing according to their orientation and filled up with natural wood, glass or marble panels.

© Elias Handelis

The thermal inertia of masonry and concrete structure, massive and closed on the north faces, acts as a ‘heat sink’, slowing the rate of temperature change in all interior premises enabling them to be cooled without mechanical refrigeration. Further, the existence of openings on two sides of every interior space allows its manually controlled physical ventilation.

© Elias Handelis

The attenuation of inner/outer bounds extends every inhabitable space and intensifies space continuity. The design of a built-up table in the focal gathering point of the house accentuates that sensation as well as the layout of the flooring joints.

The incorporation of a stretch of water at the center of the habitat, beyond cooling and leisure purposes, serves several meanings: founding a circular movement course, suggesting the ‘agglomerating around water’ generational scheme of Tinos villages’ and offering a natural reflect plan at the work’s architecture.