Residence in Thiva

This house was built for a family of four – a young couple and their two children – at the southeastern outskirts of the town of Thiva, Greece.

The corner lot of 4.300m² (46.285ft²) is in a privileged location, since it offers a panoramic view of the nearby woodland and farmland. It is accessible from its western edge, by a country road.

At the final stage of preliminary design, we developed a single-storey solution, with the basement of the residence only containing secondary functions, such as storage rooms, the heating boiler room, the laundry room and the garage.

This solution has aesthetic and functional advantages: we were able to use the whole of the 205m² (2.207ft²) allowed by building regulations for a single floor plan, without losses for stairways etc., while at the same time managing to keep the building low.

To integrate it furthermore into the landscape, we applied a discreet dark colouring for the walls externally, while many of its elements show surfaces of plain, hammered concrete and black titan-zinc sheets as cladding for the ends of the main roof.

The composition consists of three volumes, forming a U-shape. This shape encloses a somehow more introverted and protected space, an internal courtyard.

The east volume includes the living/dining/kitchen areas under a butterfly roof supported by a central beam. The roof’s shape helps collecting rainwater at its ends, which is used for the property’s needs, and at the same time allows the installation of photovoltaic panels.

Long windows under the roof contribute to good ventilation, allowing warm air to withraw during the warm season of the year.

The west volume of the plan includes the bedrooms with their auxiliary rooms.

The third volume, acting as the connection of the other two includes the main entrance, a visitors’ WC, the wardrobe and an office.