2. Houses in Tinos

2. Houses in Tinos

The object of study stems from a network of historical villages on Tinos which emerge as historically, architecturally, and culturally stratified areas – of permeable boundaries between domestic and public spheres – and share common characteristics and fragilities, with other regions in the Mediterranean basin.

Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago.

In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa (from Greek ophis ‘snake’) and Hydroessa (from Greek hydor ‘water’).

Situated on the slope below a church (Faneromeni), next to the old marble quarry, it forms part of the insular Mediterranean region –an area elusive in its definition and multilayered in its history – and features an unusually large number of historical settlements, at their majority mountainous, unspoiled by mass tourism and consumption demands, phenomena that characterize neighbouring insular places, severely affecting their natural and built landscape.

The architecture of Tinos is typical of the Aegean vernacular, influenced by the micro- environment and its historical background: The climate, the soil and the building materials, the occupation of the inhabitants, the manners and the customs, are the factors that contributed to the traditional architecture of the island.

The house, accessible from NW side, from a stepped pathway, develops develops from the field to the open courtyard.

It’s integrated in its surroundings and rests on an embankment . For the protection of the main entrance from sun/ rain, an eave of triangular- shape develops, signifying the entrance.

The courtyard is equipped with benches, created from the extension of the counter walls.

The project aimed to create a continuum, and a relation between horizontal spaces and the vaulted ceiling, who created strong movement by its own.

At the entrance we’re inside a small, delimited space, entirely covered in white marble who runs from the pavement to the ceiling (which here is just 230 cm, being at the bottom of the vault), with the only exception of two small niches, who serves as pocket emptier.

Once crossed the entrance, the ceiling goes up to the vault, catching eyes from left to right. In front there’s the table, a thick white marble slab, which goes directly into a niche depth 15 cm. The slab, supported by a small wooden cab- inet and a strong metallic pillar, virtually englobe this small space. The table is shaped in order to create a correct flux of movement, from all the spaces. Up to this niche we find another one (which goes from 100 cm to 160 cm from bottom) divided at its midway by a thick wooden shelf. This same use of space is constant all along the house, maintaining the same level from all the windows to those “Holes”.

At the left of the entrance, we find the kitchen, a wooden horizontal plane who follow the boundary of the house; inside the preexistence hoven we find the ventilation panel, to the top of the stoves, with the sink in front of the window, which is in between to niches (who again follow the previous explained rules).

At the left side of the table, we see the first and only door, which bring us to the bathroom by going up to the lowest part of the vault. In the bathroom the heigh is the same as this low point (230 cm). By entering there’s another opening, which goes down by 3 steps, to -60 cm. This is a bathtub, with the water level on the second step, and a total heigh of this space of 300 cm.

The bathroom is completely covered by big tiles with the same raw texture as pavement and wall of the rest of the house. By coming back it’s evident how’s the entrance is limited by two vertical ele- ments: the fridge (boxed in wood) and the wall itself. Following the wall movement, we find two applique quarto light for the illumi- nation of the dining and kitchen area. Going into the other side of the house there’s a change of level: it goes up to 20 cm on a big platform, which holds another L shaped wooden element, with some cushions on top of it.

Turning at the last space of the house, there’s a small cabinet, serving the living room; this element (in conjunction of the wardrobe back panel) is the of the bedroom; they goes up to 210 from level 0.

The bedroom is lifted again on another wooden element of 20cm height, and at the endo of the room, two suspended akari light illuminate the ambiance, defininig a vertical connection between vault and floor.

Laboratorio “Architecture of Interiors Studio” 2022

Professori: Emanuele De Giorgi, Stamatina Kousidi, con Joseph Rigo, Simona Franzino, Andrea Migliarese con Nathan De Wouthers

Leonardo Ricci (Rome, June 8, 1918-Venice, September 29,1994) was an Italian architect, painter and existential philosopher. Ricci enrolled the Faculty of Architecture in Florence where he graduated in 1941. In his career can be seen different phases. The one that interested us is In the mid-1950s where there was the expressionist-organicist turning point of Villa Balmain. The famous Parisian tailor Pierre Balmain decided to build a holiday villa with a representative function on the island of Elba: he identified the land in an area of particular landscape value, downstream from the town of Poggio, and entrusted the project to the Florentine architect Leonardo Ricci, who wished to create. The work began in 1958 and was completed in 1960.