Most people wouldn’t buy a home where they couldn’t close any of the windows or doors.
But when Piers Taylor, an architect based near Bath, England, started planning a second home for his family on the Greek island of Corfu, he tossed that humdrum convention overboard.
“When we were on holiday, I didn’t want it to be like home — I wanted it to feel completely different,” said Dr. Taylor, 57, the founder of the firm Invisible Studio. “More than anything, I wanted the house to feel really raw and really connected to this wild landscape, with no separation at all.”
The result is a hard-wearing home, built on a shoestring budget, that is impossible to close off from the elements. Its primary living space and kitchen is an open-air terrace under a corrugated metal roof. Its bedrooms and bathrooms, on two levels below the main living space, are dug into a hillside and can be only partially enclosed with metal screens and plastic curtains. There are no glass windows or doors, resulting in rooms that are forever exposed.
Dr. Taylor, who understands both frugality and extravagant design, having hosted the BBC shows “The House That £100k Built” and “The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes,” arrived at this radically minimalist concept after a lifetime of learning about Corfu’s natural environment and building traditions.
