Anassa Beach Houses
PAPHOS - CYPRUS
PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL
The brief for this project was to design 2 holiday houses for 2 close family friends located on a beachfront site in Akamas area on the West coastline of Cyprus.
The close relationship of the 2 families also became a requirement for a unified design language across both houses in order to appear as one large seamless holiday villa.
From the street elevation the houses appear as one concrete volume sitting above a stone plinth. The existing level difference along the street boundary dictated the position of each house in elevation, thus separating them exactly by one floor level and creating seamless connecting shared uses between them and their occupants.
On the ground floor, the internal social areas, the living and dining rooms, are enclosed by floor to ceiling sliding glass doors that can be completely recessed into the walls, transforming the living room into an immense terrace that connects with the front pool terrace and the beach at the end of the garden.
The bedrooms and their annexes on the first floor are uniformly protected by openable wooden panels, present on all the volume façades; in this way the different uses (bedrooms, playrooms, study, bathrooms and dressing rooms) are all safeguarded by one uniform façade treatment.
The lower basement floors includes a garage with storage for a small day boat, service areas, a wine cellar a workshop and a gym that has widows and full access out to the side of the garden , suggesting a relation between the active and leisure uses of the home.
Respecting the Shore Protection zone required by the local authorities, the houses are set back from the beach thus creating a large natural (private) garden which extends from the swimming pools and gradually descends all the way down to the sandy beach of Akamas.
Outdoor seating area, sun lounging and dining areas of both houses are connected through the garden with openings on the boundary wall between plots and large timber pergolas which overhang on each side creating a variety of outdoor entertaining spaces for the two families to enjoy.
