Piperi House Kythnos

Sigurd Larsen

Dis­cov­er­ing Athens through doc­u­menta 14, Ar­chi­tect Sigurd Larsen who was born on an island in Denmark, im­me­di­ately felt drawn to the Greek islands, re­turned the fol­low­ing year and fell for a plot of land on the Cy­cladic Island of Kythnos. The area around Berlin, where Larsen is based, kept getting more ex­pen­sive and seeking to build a summer house with a degree of ex­per­i­men­tal freedom, the coastal grounds on the rough and se­cluded island were the perfect fit.

Em­bed­ded into the wild hill­side land­scape of sun­burnt flora in brown­ish-greens, four re­cum­bent cubical volumes on dif­fer­ent heights, over­look the sea with a 200-de­gree view. Zoning Laws do not permit two stories to be built on top of each other, and thus the mono­lithic cubes work their way down the moun­tain­side like a village, some cubes clev­erly block­ing the view of neigh­bour­ing houses. The dif­fer­ent volumes and levels are in­ter­con­nected with stairs, moving up- and down­hill and leading to the three ter­races, all facing the open ocean.

Beside the ter­races, the dining table and sofa, all three bed­rooms, and even the bathtub are facing this scenic view. The windows per­fectly frame the un­in­hab­ited Island Piperi, the eponym of Piperi House. Larsen vig­or­ously mon­i­tored the exact ori­en­ta­tion of the house towards the island during con­struc­tion. The idea of framing the view was in­formed by Villa Ma­la­parte on Capri, sitting on and almost sinking into the gi­gan­tic bedrock Punta del Mas­sullo. Villa Ma­la­parte’s re­mark­ably small windows single out ex­cerpts of the sur­round­ing nature, which appear as if painted and framed ac­cord­ingly.

Architecture and Object

© Sigurd Larsen

“The stone is used every­where on the island, in the vil­lages, and their alleys. Its rusty qual­i­ties are the perfect match for the bronze doorhan­dles. The salty, humid air will en­cour­age their patina and have them age beau­ti­fully. The idea is to work with the el­e­ments, instead of against them.”

- Sigurd Larsen

Vis­it­ing vil­lages, churches, and monas­ter­ies to study Cy­cladic ver­nac­u­lar ar­chi­tec­ture, not only the prin­ci­ples of white cubical struc­tures with small windows were ap­par­ent but also the almost ex­ces­sive use of stairs. And while the Cy­cladic Islands have some of the tough­est Zoning Laws within Europe – the pro­por­tions of windows for example are strongly reg­u­lated, and doors cannot be sliding but have to be opened towards the inside, their wooden shut­ters towards the outside – there are sur­pris­ingly no reg­u­la­tions around stair­cases.

Ac­cen­tu­at­ing the rule of the con­tin­u­ous 90-de­gree angle, the steps of the stairs outside are mir­rored in the inside of the house. The rooms inside the house are con­nected through a circuit of stairs which over­laps with a circuit outside, that con­nects the main ter­races. Both cir­cuits in­ter­con­nect, so that one could walk end­lessly through both the in- and the outside, and through all four levels of the house.

De­ci­sively struc­tur­ing the floor­plan, the stairs become some­what of an ar­chi­tec­tural leit­mo­tiv for Piperi House – Larsen ref­er­ences Maurits Cor­nelis Escher as an in­spi­ra­tion. But whereas Escher’s stairs are im­pos­si­ble in per­spec­tive, Larsen trans­lates the motif to the con­tin­u­ous move­ment through the space, en­cour­ag­ing one to explore all angles of the house during all pos­si­ble times of the day.


Working with the mi­gra­tion of day­light through spaces, was first in­formed by Larsens affin­ity for Danish ar­chi­tect Jørn Utzon, who planned his iconic Mal­lorca homes Can Lis and Can Feliz, with the passage of sun­light. When the evening sun il­lu­mi­nates the Piperi House kitchen, you have to start cooking, if you want to have dinner with sunset, Larsen says.

Piperi House is nat­u­rally ven­ti­lated through high windows that provide a con­stant breeze, and through every room having one screen door or window, which can be open at any time. The sky­lights fur­ther­more shed accents of warm sun­light onto the white walls and into the min­i­mal­ist yet snugly dec­o­rated space.

The dark and natural stone used for the mosaic floor and the outside ter­races and stairs, is sourced on Kythnos and doesn’t over­heat in the sun, so that one can walk bare­foot on it. It fea­tures layers of iron, which, if you cut the stone one di­rec­tion appear blueish, and cut the other di­rec­tion appears brown­ish.

Photos © Ana Santl

The doorhan­dles, FSB 1267 in­spired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, come in a dark pati­nated bronze and will oxidate due to the high hu­mid­ity, per­fectly match­ing the vivid layers of iron in the floor. Instead of con­stantly fight­ing the el­e­ments, you come to work with them, says the ar­chi­tect.

The Cy­cladic islands are known for its rough, rocky land­scape with mostly bushes and only few trees. In winter, Kythnos is lush and green, full of colour­ful flowers and scents, in the summer it burns off, tran­si­tion­ing into hues of yellow and sage green. The beau­ti­fully melan­cholic at­mos­phere is some­what rem­i­nis­cent of the pic­tures of Leonard Cohen living on Hydra in the 1960s, says Larsen.

In com­par­i­son to current day Hydra however, Kythnos still offers enough space for you to find one of the many beaches to have en­tirely to your­self.

A small guest house with an outdoor kitchen and a pergola, typical for Greek houses, are cur­rently built into an ex­ist­ing stone barn close to the house. They fore­ground what’s already in­her­ent to Piperi House – nothing here is not di­rectly af­fected by nature. A set of stairs invites you to climb up Piperi House’s two ac­ces­si­ble rooftops.

Being exposed to the stout winds and hot sun one re­al­izes, how clev­erly Larsen stag­gered the cubes for one to always find refuge in the still air and shade on some terrace down­stairs. Having access to the two rooftop ter­races, and having nat­u­rally walked and ef­fec­tively used every nook and cranny of the build­ing, leaves you with the rare and san­guine sen­ti­ment of having fully un­der­stood and ef­fec­tively lived with Piperi House.

Location

Piperi House Kythnos

84006 Kythnos
Greece

Di­rec­tions

BESbswy