Foster + Partners has completed a new private villa in Muğla, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. 

Named Dolunay Villa, the 1,668-square-metre private residence is situated along the coast of the Aegean Sea in Turkey’s southwestern province of Muğla. 

The fully transparent residence features with "a handcrafted undulating structural timber roof" that cantilevers 7.5m from the building and creates a generous outdoor shaded spaces and cool shaded courtyards to the rear.

The Dolunay Villa is the second completed project of Foster + Partners in Turkey, after completed Apple Zorlu Center in Istanbul in 2014. Foster + Partners' The Address Residence in Istanbul is under construction and expected to be completed this year.

The new private villa has been carefully sited amid the natural rugged setting, prioritising the spectacular sea views. The site is accessed from the north, with a curving road that leads to the drop-off for the villa. 

Taking references from the site's natural contours, Foster + Partners' design embeds these references to the building to create a low-rise building that appears as a single storey structure on approach. 

The house is embedded within a beautiful Mediterranean garden that offers a multisensory experience with fragrant plants such as thyme and lavender alongside rich seasonal planting and mature olive trees. 

The main entrance takes users directly to the heart of the villa with the private family quarters to the eastern side, orientated to respond to the contours of the site, and the public living and dining areas to the west, with exceptional views of the setting sun over the Aegean.

To create a journey through the villa from "opaque to open", the residence reflects different levels of privacy throughout and the design seeks to blur the boundaries between inside and outside living.

Large glass doors along the façade are pushed back completely to provide an unobstructed flow of space between the interior and exterior spaces.

The main design element of the villa is its undulating structural timber roof, designed in conjunction with Swiss firm Blumer Lehmann. The prefabricated and precision-engineered structure contains substantially less carbon than a typical concrete roof. 

The solid structural oak beams rest on steel columns, supporting a large 7.5m cantilever, providing generous outdoor shaded spaces.

The central feature stair that connects the two levels is made from solid Portuguese limestone and is supported through post-tensioned cables running through the stone with no other visible supports. 

Preserving the purity of the staircase and offering a feeling of lightness, the balustrades are made from thin glass tubes with a timber handrail that has been bent and shaped on site.

"Reflecting the high levels of craftsmanship in the design, each element has been designed to respond to the specific requirements of the client – from hand-carved solid timber doors to bespoke ceramic tiles and basin in the bathrooms," said Foster + Partners. 

"There is a smaller sunset pavilion closer to the coast that features natural stone walls, olive groves, wooden tables and a bamboo soffit."

Inspired by the villa’s immediate surroundings, the natural interior material palette consists of  stone, wood and bronze and features various tones of warm browns and greys found throughout the rocky outcrops and sandy beaches of the site. 

The choice of oak joinery and leather furnishings provides a relaxed, elegant feel to the coastal retreat.

Foster + Partners worked with Turkish architecture studio Artiko architects and Design Group Istanbul on this project. 

Foster + Partners is a global studio for sustainable architecture, urbanism and design, founded by Norman Foster in 1967. The studio produces a great number of projects in various scales and types. 

Foster + Partners has offices in London, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Hong Kong, Madrid, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and Sydney. 

The firm has around 1,300 employees from around the world in all offices. 

Project facts

Project name: Dolunay Villa

Architects: Foster + Partners

Local architects: Design Group Istanbul, Artiko architects

Location: Muğla, Turkey 

Size: 1,668m2

Appointment: 2015

Completion: 2019 

Environmental Engineer: Okutan Mühendislik, Ankara.

Lighting Engineer: Design Group Istanbul

Height: 7.60m

Structural Engineer: Design Group Istanbul, Matte Construction & Design

Landscape Architect: Exterior Architecture, Jan Muse Landscape Designers

All images courtesy of Foster + Partners

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