“hus af lys” (Danish for “house of light”) is a single family residence located on the northside of the island of St. Croix. This contemporary residence uses sleek geometries and details to enhance the spectacular views towards Hams Bluff and the Caribbean Sea. St. Croix, the largest of the US Virgin Islands, is divided geographically into former plantation estates established during Danish Colonial rule. The Crucian landscape is dotted with predominantly stone monuments of sugar mills, smoke stacks and factory buildings, executed by highly skilled enslaved African craftsmen, which still stand almost intact today.
Both the architectural and site designs strictly respect the project purpose and the site green context characterised by the touch of a considerable morphological promontory featuring grown trees, shrubs and grass-covered areas sloping down from the Černá Hora massif to the town. The overall volume of the hall is reduced as much as possible by fragmenting into several structural modules softly modelled into organic curved lines so that the shell of the building is visually linked to the Černá Hora slope. The grass-covered areas smoothly merge into the metal-sheet-covered roof. Different volume modules of the hall meet in a shared rounded top from which they continue sloping down in the form of a shed roof towards the west border of the site. The intervention of the structure is minimised especially from all sides visible from the town. The excavated soil has been reused for terrain modelling and rooftop fills reducing the hall operation and energy costs. The project has been designed on “landscape architecture” principles and meets all the parameters of an energy-saving building.
On a narrow lot with a mildly sloping incline in the northern Athenian suburb of Krioneri, the Cascading U House positions two independent dwellings one on top of the other, for the owners and their daughter.
Image Courtesy Yorgis Yerolymbos
Architects:AREA, Architecture Research Athens
Styliani Daouti, Giorgos Mitroulias, Michaeljohn Raftopoulos
Project: Cascading U Two-Family Residence in Krioneri
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