The program includes the design of (8) eight, self-catering, luxury villas (detached houses), one or two floors high, with a total area between 80, 00-100,00 m2 each and one buildingfor communal facilities, in a site with total surface area 12.000m2 . Each villa depending of the size will have ,one or two bedrooms,one or twobathrooms and oneseparate WC , fully equipment kitchen and comfortableliving room areas, indoors and outdoors, with a private swimming pool for each one.

The tourist installation is situatedin a environment with particular characteristics as far as the place and physiognomy of the ground in terms of natural elements, as its adjacency with interesting traditional spots.

Situated on the beautiful north-west coast of Crete in the village of Kastelli, the You-Phoria villas have been designed to enjoy a privileged hillside position overlooking the stunning Gramvousa peninsular and the turquoise waters of Kissamos Bay and are surrounded by lush olive groves.

The building’s constructionis harmonized with the character of the region in which it belongs and aims at the creation of a resort of special requirementsthat will be addressed in a high standardstouristic market. It provides a luxury holiday living individually designed each one tohave its own unique living space with the emphasis being bothin indoor andon outdoor entertaining, dining and relaxing spaces.

The basic element in which the architectural approach is based onis first and foremost the better possible adaptation and the incorporation of buildings in the natural landscape buildings in relation of the ground, the bas-relief, together withthe possibility of unhindered view for all the residences.

The typology is derived from the contradictingidea of a “shelter “ with a series of open spaces that generate functionally and visually the connection with the environment especiallyin the front facade where are the best visual .

The construction is using an outcropping of rock in the back of the houses, creating a winder area to stand the house , re-shape the slope, with fewer beds and wider. This is accompanied by the construction of reinforced concrete walls coated in stone, physically introducing the existence of this element and imposing rough.

The proposal reproducesthe elements of thelandscape, uses the formation of the slots and the materialityof theground in order to createthe form of the buildings . It creates indoor spaces, like houses, usingthe form of stone walls, imitating the man made landscape formations ,housesthat pops up discreetly from the ground. It uses the stone that results from the excavations, as the main structural material of buildings .

The basic material is the white stone which is the component of the site soil. The use of stone was dominant in our thought from the initial stage of design, all the material are chosen to fit better with the stone in terms of color, texture and light . This is accompanied by the construction of reinforced concrete walls coated in stone, physically introducing the existence of this element and imposing rough.

The stone construction makes the base of the building coatedall the ground floor spaces.

Thecompact stone walls of buildings are basedin the natural slot and constitute the structural and simultaneously morphologicalformationof thebuilding’s part that is organized in the ground floor . Above the stone bases pop up the volumes of rooms frugal and discreet, clearly geometrical forms, likeenormous verandas with direct view the sea. At the front lies a large sliding glass overlooking the sea, behind which lie the different areas of the house.

The villas are independent are distributed scattered in the ground, they are split in as much as possible smaller volumes for the maintenance of human scale and better harmonization of building’s volumes with the landscape and they are found in distance from each other, so that are ensured the privacy and the unhindered view to the sea, have separate accesses, separate free spaces - courtyards and separates outdoor swimming pools. The facilitiesare organized in two levels . Each one hasdirect accessto the outdoor space .The internal spaces are supplemented with, sufficiently shaped outside spaces with marble tiles coveredcourtyard as well as green, flower-beds and rows of trees areas.

Looking back the “transparent” shelter was the main idea “shelter” because it shouldbe hidden to the ground, to be as invisible as it could be, and “transparent’ because from everywhere, in every room, inside and outside ,you could have a nice view of the exterior space .That happens not only because the walls, interiors and exteriors have a transparency, either with the continuous openings, or with the transparent materials that we use for the interior arrangement , but mainly because the spatial arrangement of the overall design in terms of master plan the actual place of its villa in terms of place and level have take into account the idea of spatial transparency.Those two keyconcepts I feel are very important for the understanding of the project.