The Viewfinder

The viewfinder is a concept for a vacation home on the island of Antiparos. The property lies on a hill that is fully exposed to the prevailing northern winds (meltemi). The landscape is typical of the Cyclades, it is a sloped terrain with vegetation that is rich in biodiversity but consistently low in height. The three challenges the design needed to address were to create exterior living areas protected from the meltemi, to integrate the volume of the proposed buildings into the topography, and to provide privacy from the surrounding homes. The Viewfinder frames the three most unique views: the dramatic view of a cluster of rocks in the middle of the sea to the northeast, the picturesque view of the small village of Antiparos and the straits that divide the island from Paros to the east, and the sunset view over the sea on the nearby bay to the west. The breathtaking view of the Aegean is the asset that the house needed to amplify. Retaining walls frame the views while also adjusting the topography in order to carve into the landscape.

The Retaining walls

The retaining walls play a very important role in the definition and experience of the place. At the level of the landscape they provide very concise outlines. These out­lines follow the dominant views and contain a very broad program without erasing the raw character of the Cycladic landscape that surrounds them. The retaining walls will be built using a layer of what resembles the dry stone wall construction typical of the Cycladic rural retaining walls. This treatment will occur to­wards the landscape in order to blend with it. On the sides facing the inhabited areas of the building the stone will be white washed in order to both maintain the raw texture of the stone work while creating bright internal spaces. The thickness of the stone walls varies between 0.50 to 1.10 meters. When these walls become thick they allow for the concrete structure and the insulation to be concealed. Most importantly they also become inhabited. Among the many uses the cavities in the wall provide space for cabi­nets and shelves, for seating or cooking, for deep windows and showers.

The carved pilotis

In the vocabulary of modernist architecture the pilotis is the exterior covered space that elevates interior spaces in order to liber­ate the ground. In the Viewfinder we explore the spatial potential of raising the architectural volume to create a continuous ground condition that is carved from the land­scape and which invites flows towards the prevalent views and upwards. In a landscape with such steep topography, raising the ground floor allows the building to connect to the land­scape at different levels and thus privileging the idea of exterior living.