Villa F in Rhodes, Greece by Hornung and Jacobi Architecture

Set above and within a natural stone wall which runs along this length of the Greek Rhodes coastline, Villa F is a design proposal by Hornung and Jacobi Architecture for a family’s occasional holiday retreat. There’s a strong emphasis on comfort and minimalism throughout the dwelling with markedly few distinct rooms and a noticable lack of internal walls. Instead Villa F features vast open spaces and is primarily intended for leisure and entertaining guests.

One would usually expect a modern luxury villa with such a striking composition to make use of copious amount of concrete and structural steel, but instead Villa F’s proposed design takes a more elegant approach. Hornung and Jacobi Architecture opted for a lightweight plaster coated timber framework for its superstructure, as opposed to the typical tendency towards brute force and concrete cantilevers in modern architecture.

This holiday villa was intended for quick spontaneous stays and a key aspect in the design brief was that it should be possible to cool and heat the building relatively quickly in order to reach a comfortable temperature as soon as possible. This was achieved through the use of said lightweight components in its construction, and the incorporation of a mechanical roof vent to encourage convectional ventilation to occur throughout Villa F.

A large triangular solar panel on the roof provides energy for this surprisingly environmentally conscious house, and this geometric theme is continued in the scattering of triangular apertures across floors which form skylights for the level beneath. This tessellating pattern also reoccurs in the garage entrance’s sliding door, and for the privacy screen of the separate guest accommodation.