Bodrum Houses
Yalikavak, Turkey
With Meier Partners
Composed of twenty-one houses located just outside the village of Yalikavak on Turkey’s Bodrum Peninsula, this project occupies a dramatically steep hillside site featuring views to Yalikavak Bay. The site’s dramatic topography makes each 1-acre parcel unique and provides privacy from neighboring parcels.
All houses are sited to maximize views and to establish an entry sequence that further exploits the views regardless of the siting of the individual parcels. Each house contains a living room, dining room, kitchen, and powder room on the ground floor; three bedrooms on the upper floor; and media room, laundry room, and three staff bedrooms on the basement level.
A deliberately simple approach to construction is employed: materials are cast-in-place concrete with plaster finish, and large areas of glazing. The houses interiors feature a more refined palette of materials including stone and hardwood flooring. Copious sky lighting effectively forms a “fifth façade.” The houses are intended to read as a single object on the landscape, giving them a cubic appearance. Therefore, to satisfy zoning requirements for generous setbacks, exterior spaces are “carved out” of the structures’ volumes while remaining under an overarching roof, giving each house a subtractive sculptural quality.