Parallel House on Kea earns two young architects Domes award

Located in a wild, inhospitable and isolated corner of the Cycladic island of Kea, the Parallel House took the prize for Best First Work by a Young Architect at this year's Domes Greek Architecture Awards earlier this month. Katerina Kourkoula and Hannes Livers Gutberlet of the firm En Route designed a residence along the contours of the natural landscape, parallel to the island's southeastern coast, looking out toward the nearby island of Kythnos.

The architects' biggest challenge was to design a home that could be built on a steep hillside, at some distance from the nearest village and without access to the island's road or utilities networks. The challenge called for a building that is almost self-sufficient - making use of "hidden" solar panels and a rainwater collecting and recycling system - and also protected from the powerful winds that often lash the Cycladic...