dARCH studio

DESIGN: dARCHstudio
PROJECT: HOUSE IN KOUVARAS
LOCATION: KOUVARAS, ATTIKI
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Elina Drossou (dARCHstudio)
COLLABORATORS: Nikos Karkatselas
PROJECT SHEDULE: February 2007
SITE: 8.000 m2
PHOTOGRAPHY: Elina Drossou

The house in Kouvaras is the attempt of dARCHstudio to intervene and convert the existing semi-final constructional phase to a completed building with a totally new image.
dARCHstudio undertook this project when the concrete columns of the basement had already been constructed by the previous architect.

The client asked for a today’s country house. The limited chance for radical changes beared a hard and insistent effort for new drawings that would meet dARCHstudio forces:
. The use of green design would reduce the bad impact on the flora of the site and the use of energy, rainwater collection, local climate and natural materials would provide ecological and economical comforts in home. Also the roof is equipped with ecological insulation systems and thermal solar panels have been placed there to produce hot water for the bathrooms and for heating.

Although the initial contour of the house – composition of four volumes- had to be kept, it became readable in a different way, through the new design of the wooden roof, the glass openings and the alternative use of the natural and local materials such as wood and stone.
The need to abolish the dissociation between the built and the natural, lead dARCHstudio to the extension and diffusion of the concrete yards in the prairie soil of the natural environment.