FOROS (UA) – With light-friendly apartments and an integrated boathouse, Robin Monotti Architects reflexively modernize the Crimean seashore.
Today, in the age of material and, consequently, visual abundance, one might wonder what forms the essence of good architecture. More and more often, we ask ourselves what particularly seduces us in this or that object, trying to find arguments for the magic of attraction at first sight. In the case of the Foros Yacht House, designed by Robin Monotti Architects, it is a combination of several unique features which make this structure worthy of attention for the subtlest architecture connoisseur. The first intriguing thing is the presence of an Italian architect who only recently established his bureau in London, and has already procured interesting commissions in Ukraine. Secondly, the incomparable landscape of the southernmost tip of the Crimea, with its greenish-blue sea, endless horizon and steep, rocky coast covered with marvellous vegetation. Finally, the striking modernity of architecture, cultivated as a rare plant in harmony with the splendid surroundings.
The legend behind the building tells us that its designers had several sources of inspiration. The keyword here is certainly nature, or rather, its understanding as a living environment full of sound, sea winds, changing light and moods, which can be even more deeply experienced through architecture. The interaction with landscape was, however, mediated through the classic Italian book, Woman Like Me, by Curzio Malaparte, written while the author was building his Villa Malaparte on the Isle of Capri in the 1930s, a residence that still retains its role as a site of architectural pilgrimage in Italy. As Monotti has himself translated the novel into English, one can hardly doubt his deep involvement in that outstanding modernist landmark spliced with the cliff. However, because of its pure geometrical forms and detached volume, Foros Yacht House tends to evoke associations with the naturalistic residences of Frank Lloyd Wright, or even Craig Ellwood, pointing out the striking effects of the contrast between architecture and nature…
By Kseniya Dmytrenko
From: http://www.a10.eu/magazine/issues/53/yacht-house-foros.html