Adaptation, renovation, revitalisation of the existing villa. A fusion of the traditional and modern.
Bringing a ruined building with historical heritage back to life.

Villa R., built in 1933, is an architectural, historical and cultural heritage of its own kind. Thus, any kind of intervention on the location in question bore a great deal of responsibility both in the sense of architectural value of the future building, as in the economic justification of the project itself. Our analysis was based on reconciling precisely these two crucial aspects. It is first necessary to reflect on the historical context of this villa, its cultural and architectural value and therefore its specificity, and to note that this house is not suited for just any user or purpose. It is special, as are the people for whom it is intended. Namely, the building already possesses a strong identity and any attempt to create a new one would prove to be an exercise in futility. The value of this building lies in its historical context, style, and particular spatial demands which dictated the needs and way of life of the people who lived at that time. All of this was taken as great potential and an opportunity to retain the significance of the old and improve the sense of the new through appropriate intervention.
The idea of the intervention was to restore the building’s original purpose which would be adapted to the contemporary way of life and users’ needs. It was imperative to preserve the exterior morphology of the building to the highest degree possible in order to maintain its identity with all that it entails. Key problems included a lack of space in order to fulfil conditions for the building to become the luxury residential villa it is today, as well as the contact between the house and the yard which, as it seems, was interrupted by the house being raised onto the base. The villa resembles a monument atop its pedestal resisting the ravages of time. In order to restore its original function we resorted to a radical solution for the renovation so as to compensate for all the quantitative and qualitative demands of contemporary living.

The newly-designed solution yielded significantly more surface area in comparison to the existing state. This was achieved by adding another floor, expanding the basement, and moving the vertical communication outside of the building, as well as cleaning the existing massive walls and making the construction skeletal. We were of the opinion that the symmetrical form of the building should not be altered, and therefore the interventions were based on maintaining and emphasizing the symmetry. The existing land was filled and levelled to the current base of the building which helped to avoid a large depression in the land and finally “lowered” the villa to the ground. The newly built part, a floor and new vertical communication in the form of a stairwell and lift, was planned as a rotated glass cube which encompasses the old building, thus creating a dynamic form in the space. The neutral property of glass as a material does not disturb the morphology of the old monumental building, to the contrary, it highlights it even more, giving it a new meaning as a combination of old and new. The expansion of the basement enabled the building to be connected to the outside on that level as well, and sideways towards the hotel. Instead of a monumental stone wall, that side is now a glazed surface which enables natural lighting in the basement rooms. The level of the yard was raised and levelled to the existing base which helped to avoid a large depression in the land. Now it is possible to exit the building directly onto the land level, and not onto the base level, and then down another stairwell onto the land level from where, as it seems, a continuous series of steps leads to the street level. This “hole” was annulled with this intervention resulting in a significantly more pleasant space.