A residential project, for a young couple located near the mediterranean sea, featuring an internal courtyard, a refreshing swimming pool, tall palm trees, a large dinning area, modern, minimal, elegant, with some tropical vibes. A place to get together, to relax and connect.
“The Modern cave” is a residential project located in the suburbs of Saranda, a mediterranean seaside town in the southern part of Albania. The first design input was given by the clients, a young couple, who wanted a private, intimate, vibrant space with some mediterranean and tropical vibes, yet maintaining a minimal atmosphere.
The first element around which the design started to built up were the internal courtyards. There is a total of three of them spread in different parts of the house. In the following images we will see the one of them which connects to the dinning area.
The internal courtyard had to be the living heart of the house, connecting all different spaces together and at the same time maintain a certain level of intimacy and privacy, blurring the difference between outdoor and indoor, serving as a space to relax and connect with each other, and it greatly does achieve to do that. Featuring a small swimming pool and overlooking the dinning area, where sits a huge, monolithic dinning table with a stone looking finish, this is the central leisure and relax hub of the house. In contrast to the huge, quadratic opening the dinning area has to the pool, and the quadratic internal courtyard shape, we added relatively narrow, arched openings connected to corridors that lead to the bedrooms and other service areas.
There are only a few materials used for the interior and exterior of the house, stone, wood and plaster. They all came in different shapes, but still maintain the same color range. This helps achieve a monumental, minimal and elegant look. To this monumentality we wanted to add some tropical, mediterranean vibes. Nothing better than tall palm trees, green vines covering walls and a huge rhinoceros mural next to the swimming pool to do the job.
The result is an elegant, intimate, fun, minimal, juvenile seaside house.
- Architect: Besjon Hysi