Contemporary residence in Kommeno, Corfu

Sitting on a central location in the cosmopolitan area of Komeno, Corfu, yet completely hidden from plain sight, this modern villa creates a unique Summer experience. The plot is overgrown with beautiful trees and overlooks Corfu town, the fortress and the port while offering an unparalleled view of Vido island, sunbathed by the morning sun.

The house is built in the concept that its spaces need to be inviting for it to be enjoyed by family and friends, focus on the view, and create several privacy pockets, enhancing the outdoors living as its main purpose, being a summer house. It accommodates 4 bedrooms and a guest house on the lower level of the property, the day spaces both internal and external on the ground floor, and the master bedrooms with a wine/reading mezzanine and double-height space on the top floor.

Due to the complexity of the plot, because its orientation was primarily Eastern as well as its neighbours affecting the privacy, we based our architecture concept in an elongated house, making it as narrow and as long as allowed.

As a result, the house orientates towards the East and Corfu town sea views, blocks adjacent buildings peeking through the property, and at the same time, allows the summer sun to access the pool area and main external spaces, even in the late summer afternoon.

This main concept affected the materiality we chose, which alters between traditional stone walls and white rendered walls and large glazing units to break down the monotony of the volumes. Apart from the different materials, the volumes themselves interlock creating pergolas, verandas, and double-height walls in strategic areas. Those areas have been carefully chosen to act as privacy barriers, natural cross-ventilation, or volumetric breakers, all blended into one homogeneous outcome.

The large sliding openings extend the interior double-height space and the ground floor day spaces into the exterior BBQ and swimming pool area, unifying them all into a large summer day space. The glazing units are solid wood internally to provide a calmer and warmer interior and graphite grey externally to accent the monolithic and contemporary character of the house.

The materiality of the exterior continues into the interior with the main feature being the double-height space which one enjoys all year round, whereas the openings play an important role in heating and cooling the spaces depending on the season.

In the landscape of the property, most of it has been treated as a simple wild grass area, allowing the existing trees to provide pockets of shadow, privacy and state the Corfiot and Mediterranean character.

All in all, this architecture project has been a delight for us, as it is a very good example of how a contemporary project can be blended well with a more traditional setting and how several details affect and complete a project turning it into an experience.