This private, 1,600 sq ft home is named because of its Ypsilon shaped green roof. Located in an olive grove in southern Peloponnese, the hilltop house provides vistas towards the bay of Schiza and Sapientza as well as mountain views towards the east.
LASSA Architects Villa Ypsilon
the following text is courtesy of the architect
The project was designed by London and Brussels based architects Theo Sarantoglou Lalis and Dora Sweijd of LASSA architects. The roof’s bifurcating pathways define three courtyards that form distinct hemispheres with specific occupancy depending on the course of the sun. The height of the house is limited to the tip of the olive trees to enable its integration with the surrounding landscape.
The interior spaces are organized in two main parts: A more private area containing three bedrooms and two bathrooms with views towards the east and a more common area towards the south containing the kitchen area and the living room which provide continuous access to all three courtyards.
The circulation through, around and on top of the house forms a continuous promenade comprising indoor and outdoor activities. The form of the concrete shell coupled with the planted roof and cross ventilation strategy provides an environmental response which prevents the need for mechanical cooling systems.
The remote location of the project in combination with the limited budget and non-standard geometry induced a construction strategy that called for a large amount of off-site prefabrication and self-assembly which allowed to reduce the construction time to 7 months without compromising anything in terms of quality or exceeding the budget.
The CGI renderings below show what the living roof will look like once the grass is grown in:
“We decided to buy a CNC machine that allowed for extensive prototyping and the production of non-standard elements. This included the concrete shell formwork, the living room lost formwork/acoustic ceiling, custom window frames, interior furniture and partition systems as well as landscape and pool formers.” says partner Theo Sarantoglou Lalis. This ‘hands-on’ approach allowed for a minimal use of commercial ‘off-the-shelf’ products while instead favoring locally sourced materials such as concrete, terrazzo and marble.
• Design Team | LASSA : Designed by Theo Sarantoglou Lalis and Dora Sweijd with Kasper Ax, Yu Zheng, Theo Grousopoulos, Yousef Al Mehdari, Thomas Jensen, Valeria Garcia, Nikolaos Klimentidis, Luke Tan, Greg Spaw.
• Executive Architect | V. Kosmopoulos
• Engineer | Metep : L. Babilis.
• General Contractor | Triedros : V. Leriou.
• Digital Manufacturing | LASSA : Concrete Form work, Landscape formers, Bespoke window frames, Furniture.
• Formwork Engineer | NOUS : Manja van De Worp.
Photos courtesy of LASSA Architects by Studio Naaro