White Box House
Alethriko, Larnaca
PPA were appointed to provide full architectural and interior design services for this private residence on an isolated, although central, village site, benefiting from panoramic views – to the village church, the sea and the hills. The client’s brief was to deliver a crisp, contemporary, sustainable building, with nods to the Cypriot vernacular, along with providing extensive terracing to take advantage of the views.
We developed the idea of taking a cube and then unwrapping it – to create a spiral of terraces and stairs – and then punching holes in it to create windows, and particularly a huge picture window to the frontage and double height entrance area. Traditional Cypriot coursed stone walling planes thread through the building, adding texture and dynamic to the crisp, white primary exterior and interior ‘unfolded’ envelope.
The punched picture window to the North and the extensive window openings to the South, on axis, allow the house to be ‘opened up,’ North to South, to take advantage of the off shore breeze, to passively cool the building via through-draught. The cantilevered terraces and extensive brushed aluminium pergolas, ‘pulled’ with white wall planes away from the house ‘box’, protect the building and it’s immediate external spaces from the sun, allowing the house to be opened up and essentially extend the interior into the exterior in summer.
The house benefits from a multi-level pool side space, with a shaded raised Pavilion area incorporating an external kitchen, stepping down to the pool side terrace, leading to a three level L-shaped pool, linked with submerged steps, allowing the owners and their guests to recline in a shallow area, stand in a shoulder height area, or exercise in the deep 17m ‘lap pool’. There is also a top terrace bar area, envisaged as a roof level lounge, incorporating large floor standing cantilevered lamps, blurring the line between what is exterior and interior in the house – a recurring them in the design.
Building size:
220m2
Status:
On site
Services provided:
Architecture, Interior design