Villa Arhan is situated in Bayramoglu, just outside Istanbul. It is a Turkish summer village, lacking beaches and parks, where every house is privately embedded by its own piece of nature. The villa sits at the end of a street, facing the sea of Marmara between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The earthquake safe construction ensures that Villa Arhan will have a long life. Future generations might recognise it with its classic contours, as an old temple by the sea.

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The main objective and inspiration was to use a simple geometry in accordance with the clients’ affinity for modernist style. The simplicity of a cube, the insertion of a folly, a full half circle jammed into a rectangular box, is a simple solution. To create more tension in the intersection of the volumes, the cylinder becomes undulated when it meets the orthogonal box.

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The materials chosen represent the original natural resources of Turkey. Concrete, white marble, concrete glass, slate and black painted frames for the glass doors. The glass concrete construction is predominant in the design. This material gives the inhabitant a framed glimpse, rather than a full view of the landscape surrounding the villa. It also lets light penetrate and reach all the places within.

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Going down from the ground floor to the lower level, a big terrace, clad in black shale opens directly to the seafront. This terrace is designed to be flooded when stormy weather, thus creating a place to contemplate the beauty and force of nature.

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Villa Arhan was inaugurated May 2nd 2013 by HRH Princess Birgitta of Sweden.

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