Villa Arca

Villa Arca sits on a south-facing slope in the inner Bosphorus. The brief asked for a house that could take weather, guests and a working life without breaking into wings. We set a timber-clad volume against the fall of the land and cut a court into the upper terrace so the arrival is measured before the view appears.

The principal room runs the length of the house. Kitchen, dining and sitting are held as one sequence, with a low ceiling at the hearth and a higher plane toward the glass. Bedrooms step back into the hillside. Structure is expressed as a dark steel frame; cladding is thermally treated timber that will silver with the salt air.

Services are concentrated in a single spine so the long room stays clear. The stair is a steel flight against the uphill wall, lit from a slot that also vents the court. Joinery is oak, made as furniture rather than as a fitted kitchen — it can be read as a piece in the room.

Construction is underway. The landscape is treated as a continuation of the plan — planted banks, a single tree retained, and a terrace that meets the slope without a balustrade where the drop allows it.