The “Lap Pool House,” a modern house built on a slope of the Cycladic island of Tinos, is nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award, a prestigious European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.
The Architectural Project of the Lap Pool House
According to Aristides Dallas Architects, the team who created this masterpiece was inspired by the rocks’ cavities and ledges. The house emerges from the natural landscape as a human-made cave, re-creating spatial points of exposure and introversion.
The entrance of the house is located at the back of the building. People can enter through an earth crack, while different roof cuts allow light and air to enter the building.
The architects say that the water in the pool that is one of the main features of the house ”contrasts with the rocky texture of the bare concrete as a translation of the interactions between natural elements.”
Concrete is also the theme that encompasses the house in its entirety.
”A single slab of concrete, planted, so it appears as an extension of the landscape, covers the three building volumes in the Lap pool house and shapes the individual architectural qualities of open and closed space in the residence,” the team says.
”The two volumes that project from the slab perpendicular to each other make up the private spaces, a bedroom, and a guest house. In the same volume, there is a protected semi-outdoor space that frames the view while offering shelter, at the request of the owner.”
What is unique about this house is that the building’s colors emerge from the color of the rocks surrounding it.
The inspiring creators wanted to achieve camouflage in the landscape. ”Embracing this idea of merging with the landforms around it, the building urges the habitant to live with absolute connection with the scenery of Tinos and with nature altogether,” the architects note in their description of the house.
The EU Mies Award for Architecture
The EU Award for Contemporary Architecture is a biennial prize that highlights outstanding architectural works built across the European Union.
According to the organizers, besides the main prize, which is a €60,000-award, the Award also includes the Emerging Architect Prize of €20,000.
Since 2001, the prize has been co-organized by the European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe every other year. It is also referred to in short as the EU Mies Award.
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