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Concrete Beds

Concrete Beds

Prefabricated beds of reinforced concrete are planted in a rocky seaside landscape in such a way that they look like scattered caves.

Concrete Beds

Concrete beds are installed and merge with the landscape on an arid hill on some mediterranean island. The beds, which are integrated into the rocky slope, are shaped like vaulted "cases" of reinforced concrete, open toward the east. The beds are isolated from the surrounding area by an ordinary fabric curtain or by an easily movable screen. The area provided for each bed is 3x2 metres, contains an open area above the pillow and cupboard drawers under the bed. Accessible from outside, in the same small storage area that can be locked and protected from the winter weather but also in the space surrounding the installation, there is a protected power supply from which it is possible to draw power to light the outdoor area, to plug in a computer or to charge a mobile phone. in addition to the hidden electrical outlet there is also plumbing under the ground, revealing conventional sanitary fixtures in the space in front of each bed. The outdoor area is free of stones, has been dug up to accommodate the power and water supply lines. Finally it is leveled and made smooth by the use of special resins, so as to create the area required in front of the bed. In this design we imagine the minimalisation of closed living space in conjuction with the most extreme respect for the environment in the history of the country cottage. Concrete Beds show the prospect of a country house being converted into an invisible eye beholding the landscape.

The work was published in the book Oral Architecture, Athens, Patakis, 2004. With the collaboration of Yannikos Vasiloulis and Katerina Grigoropoulou.

How Architecture Learned to Speculate

Aristide Antonas prefabricates beds of reinforced concrete and plants them in a rocky seaside landscape in such a way that they look like scattered caves. Is speculation, in the present world of technological devices, of computers, mobile phones and GPS rather located in the simple reduction to the very first network that is the waste water system? And what kind of radical architecture declares the bed a concrete cave and places the bathroom in the open landscape?

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