Touchstone Summer House Plan Layout
Touchstone Summer House Plan Layout

Touchstone* Vacation House in Andros

Our starting point is a partially renovated site. The aim was to restore, rather than correcting and demolishing the given framework, comparable to a monument restoration process. We introduced a few tweaks to the interior and exterior programme, to enhance functionality.  

The site, a so called ‘Milena’, comprises a kitchen, a built-in oven and a semi-sunken stone shelter for animals. Vistas are orientated towards the sea and yards are covered with impressive cypress trees, a landscape unchanged over the past 200 years. 

Some of the furniture interventions sit in direct contrast to the existing stone shell, as spatial parasitical events, activating and transforming the space around them, be it with carefully chosen colour tonalities or seemingly stark metal features. Other elements are a continuation of the natural rock, extruding the shell, commenting on the tactility of the rich materials found on site. Rocks, stone, marble form a cave, this design is a restless exploration on touching stone.

*Touchstone is a fictional character in Shakespeare’s play ‘As You Like It’. Throughout the play he comments on other characters, contributing to a better understanding of the play. 

Project Data

Year 2020

Location Greece

Type Residential

Architect Elina Loukou

Civil engineer Yiannis Petrakis

Project manager Melia Tataki

Contractor Psarros AE

Light designer Eszter Hanzseros

Photos Vassilis Makris

Greek Architecture Awards 2022

Doma Publication Index Doma Issue 156

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Room for birth and senses