Interpon RAL 9017 Structura: A fine textured solid black frame marks the undefined limit between indoors and outdoors at the Viewpoint House by OOAK Architects ―
Recently complete by OOAK Architects, the Viewpoint house is a 112m² vacation home drawing its strong personality from the creative interpretation of its setting: Integrated in a traditional island settlement in Karpathos, the new house refuses to be a building in the conventional sense; instead, it maintains the seamless feel of openness characteristic of its specific location and integrates traditional and modern vernacular elements of its surrounding in an abstract yet powerful way.
The island of Karpathos is known for its beautiful terraced villages with their shared roofs and balconies, where borders between private and public, open and closed, often disappear. The site for this project – in the picturesque village of Diafani – was no different: The lot itself is partially situated on the rooftop of an existing building, at the far edge of the compact settlement. This rooftop offers an incredible 180-degree view the port of Diafani to the east, the Aegean Sea to the north, and the town to the west.
Maintaining the outdoor rooftop feeling of the site became the primary design goal, while creating a house on it. The house is conceived as a private viewing point, a veranda, embraced by a perimetrical wall, offering maximum privacy and protection from the winds. The house’s social areas are arranged in an open plan upon the veranda, which is thus transformed into a summer room with an undefined indoor/outdoor character thanks to the large 13.8m opening. The only structural support in this space is the perimetrical wall, without any columns interfering with the view and seamless transition between indoor and outdoor areas.
The second floor is enclosed inside a solid volume suspended above the open space of the veranda. This volume, hosting all the house’s private spaces, is designed with references to the vernacular architecture of the island, providing shade for the inhabited rooftop and maintaining the intimate scale of the settlement.
The apparent whiteness of the house from outside is subverted by a striking collection of colors and textures on the inside. The open space of the veranda is dressed in polished grey stone with large aggregates, reminiscent of 20th-century vernacular homes all over the Greek countryside; the supporting perimetrical wall is faced in pressed cement with a fine texture, left in its natural hue. Case furniture is made of wood, either left in its own color or painted a vibrant cobalt blue corresponding to the sea, where the waved patterns of the trunks’ natural growth remain visible. The frame around the opening at the limit of inside and outside stands out, coated in a solid, smooth black. The color palette in the private rooms ranges between greens and reds, with two vaulted bathrooms at the sides dressed in ceramic tiles or color marble slabs; the olive green color of the seamless epoxy floor is repeated in the circular balcony overlooking the harbor.
The views and the proximity to the sea, as well as the location in the vernacular settlement, are the most important features of the house, and the interior is designed to accentuate and enrich this experience. The clever collage of colors and materials as well as the play with heights and shapes in all the rooms anchor the house in its surroundings and maximize the potential of the otherwise small rooms.
Architecture: OOAK Architects
Color on frames: Interpon RAL 9017, Structura Collection
Color Code: YN358F
