Project: House with a Garden
Architects: OFFICE MUTO
Location: Milos, Greece
Area: 2, 906 sf
Year: 2023
Photographs by: Simone Bossi
House with a Garden by OFFICE MUTO
Rooted in its surroundings and the local architectural heritage, the project at Vigla exudes a captivating sense of structure and coherence. Embracing the essence of traditional sheepfolds, the heart of the building lies in a central courtyard, seamlessly connecting interior and exterior spaces. This thoughtful design not only adds to the formal unity of the project but also offers protection from the fierce winds that sweep across the plateau.
Each element of the building takes the form of a simple rectangular volume, effortlessly linked to the courtyard without any superfluous circulation. Delicate openings towards the picturesque landscape beautifully frame the relationship between the courtyard and its surroundings. The walls, constructed from stones extracted during the foundation excavation and rainwater-collecting cistern, establish a simple mineral architectural language that harmonizes with the horizon, evoking a serene and unified atmosphere.
The project offers structure through the use of a courtyard rooted in both the site itself and its surrounding architecture. This court constitutes the bare essence of the building. On the one hand, the site of Vigla is characterized by its numerous traditional sheepfolds; composed of simple rectangular volumes adjoined to small courtyards that allow to increase the living space of the animals by associating the interior space to a larger outside space.
On the other hand, the place itself is defined by a not-very common platitude that exposes the plateau to strong winds giving all the more relevance to the architecture of the surroundings sheepfolds. The use of a courtyard around which the building could be articulated allows to create a set of solid formal coherence, but it also helps to protect from strong winds in order to extend the relatively reduced interior living space to a much more generous and less expensive outdoor area.
Following that logic, each element of the project is materialized by a simple rectangular volume connected directly to the courtyard without secondary circulation. Between — and through — these volumes, openings toward the landscape articulate the relation of the courtyard to its surroundings.
The stones used to build the walls were extracted from the ground while digging the foundations and the underground cistern that collects rainwater. Then associated with the necessary concrete elements, they together develop a simple mineral architectural language, reinforcing the horizontality of the building and the unity of the courtyard.
