Villa Ypsilon is a summer house located in an olive grove in Greece characterized by its shell roof that acts as an accessible extension of the terrain, and frames specific views of the site from inside and out. The project was designed by London and Brussels based architects Theo Sarantoglou Lalis and Dora Sweijd from LASSA architects. The roof’s bifurcating pathways define three courtyards that form distinct hemispheres with specific occupancy depending on the course of the sun. The house is located on the top of a hill which provides vistas toward the islands of Schiza and Sapientza as well as mountain views towards the east. The height of the house is limited to the top of the olive trees to enable integration with the surrounding landscape. The interior spaces are organised in two main areas: a more private area containing three bedrooms and two bathrooms with views towards the east, and a more common area towards the south containing the kitchen area and the living room which provide continuous access to all three courtyards. The circulation through, around and on top of the house forms a continuous promenade comprising indoor and outdoor activities. 

The environmental strategy of the project favored the development of climate resilient geometry rather than the use of mechanical systems and products from a catalogue. The form of the concrete shell, coupled with the planted roof and cross ventilation strategy, balances the reach of sunlight into the house across the summer and winter seasons and maintains a natural level of comfort.

The remote location of the project in combination with the limited budget and non-standard geometry induced a construction strategy that called for a large amount of off-site prefabrication and self-assembly by the architects themselves which allowed them to reduce the construction time to 7 months without compromising anything in terms of quality or exceeding the budget. The use of an in-house CNC machine (digitally controlled cutting machine) allowed for extensive prototyping and the production of all non-standard elements. This included the concrete shell form work, the living room lost form work/acoustic ceiling, custom Corian window frames, interior furniture and partition systems as well as landscape and pool formers. This ‘hands-on’ approach allowed for a minimal use of commercial ‘off-the-shelf’ products while instead favoring locally sourced materials such as concrete, terrazzo and marble.