The Nid 21
The building is located in Kalamata, within a vast olive grove, which is a pocket of nature enclosed in a rapidly growing part of the urban fabric.
The street front is treated with a strict limit, acting as a visual barrier towards the interior, moving from the city to the domestic and natural environment. All service areas were aligned along this border and their north orientation proved beneficial to passive building needs. In this context, the main residential areas enjoy a southern orientation by large openings, supported by the necessary eaves that regulate the incoming solar radiation according to the seasonal needs of the Greek climate.
The geometric structure of the building has three irregular horizontal zones. The base, containing the basement, the external spaces and the swimming pool, appears as a geological formation of rough and rough stone, becoming a base to support the consecutive levels of the building.
The intermediate level, on the ground floor, is modeled in a large off-white volume with characteristic openings which by their morphology evoke a typical house; the latter, on the other hand, are subverted by the functional voids contained within them.
Ultimately, the crowning of the building materializes in a perforated veil, which embraces like a nest (nidus) the private spaces of the house on the upper level, perched on the hard volumes of the building.
The domestic functions are distributed on the three levels as follows: Service uses in the basement, consisting of a cinema room, a games room, a storage room and a storage room; semi-public use on the ground floor, which houses the living areas and guest quarters; finally, private rooms on the upper level, with bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry and room balconies overlooking a lush green area in the background.
The living areas are arranged in an open plan and the different uses are delimited with a change of floor material, or with self-supporting separation volumes, such as the central fireplace and the kitchen island.
Volumetrically, a play of wooden volumes against the white plinth encloses functional spaces such as the guest bathroom, the wardrobe and the tall kitchen furniture.