This villa is located in Turkey’s southwestern province of Muğla and situated along the Aegean Sea coast, designed as a new private villa that has been carefully sited amid the natural rugged setting with awesome sea views. Completed by Foster+Partners in 2015, Dolunay Villa is designed with large glass doors along the facade to provide an unobstructed flow of space between the exterior and interior spaces.
Design
The villa site can be accessed from the north with a curving road, leading to the drop-off of this villa. The natural contours of the site are used for the design to create a low-rise building and showing it as a single-story structure. Embedded within a beautiful Mediterranean garden, this villa offers a multisensory experience with fragrant plants alongside the mature olive trees and rich seasonal planting. The main entrance leads everyone to the heart of the villa with private family quarters to the eastern side and orientated to respond to the site’s contours, including the dining and living areas to the west with awesome views.
Spaces
The journey of this villa is started from the ‘opaque to open’ that reflect the different levels of privacy while the design tries to blur the boundaries between outside and inside living. This villa is also designed with a handcrafted undulating structural timber roof and this roof is designed in conjunction with Swiss firm Blumer Lehmann.
The prefabricated and precision-engineered structure of the villa has less carbon than a typical concrete roof while the solid structural oak beams on the steel columns can support the large cantilever. These beams also provide cool shaded courtyards and outdoor shaded spaces.
Details
The two levels of the villa are connected by a central feature stair made from solid Portuguese limestone. The balustrades are made from thin glass tubes to create a lightness atmosphere and preserve the staircase purity. Each element of the villa is designed to respond to the client’s specific requirements and to reflect the high levels of craftsmanship in the design.
The natural interior material palette is inspired by the villa’s immediate surroundings, consists of bronze, wood, and stone. This palette also offers various tones of warm browns and greys from the rocky outcrops and sandy beaches. There is also a relaxed, elegant atmosphere that comes from the oak joinery and leather furnishings.
Dolunay Villa Gallery
Photographers: Nigel Young / Foster + Partners