Lighthouse Sea Hotel by Tsai, Karopoulos and Kil

Surrounded by beautiful landscape at Capo Murro di Porco, the Lighthouse Sea Hotel was designed by Jay Tsai with Dimitrios Karopoulos & Kris Yoon Kil  that has the architecture proposed frames and reveals the nuances of the surrounding site. It treats the site like an open canvas and the architecture as the medium.

Architect: Jay Tsai with Dimitrios Karopoulos & Kris Yoon Kil

Follow the architects: The vastness of the site causes the eye to wander, unable to appreciate its nuances, which dilutes the viewer’s experience. This majestic site suddenly becomes monotonous and unmemorable. The architecture proposed frames and reveals the nuances of the surrounding site. It treats the site like an open canvas and the architecture as the medium.

The Sea Hotel understands that the experience at and reinvigoration of the Murro di Porco Lighthouse is the main exhibit. To create a focal point, a 70x70-meters-squared canopy is lifted four meters off the surface of the site to encapsulate the Lighthouse and the open air structure adjacent to it (a). The smooth white surface that hugs the landscape is starkly contrasted by the rugged terrain surrounding the site (b). This juxtaposition of the canopy and the landscape naturally draws the viewer’s attention to the lighthouse.

Natural light streams into the hotel through a series of curated cuts into the canopy. The same cuts are projected through black timber floors which are spaced such that they expose the natural landscape below. This incorporates the landscape even as guests circulate around the space inside. More importantly, the cuts in the roof capture various angles of the Murro di Porco Lighthouse (c).

This diversity of views of the lighthouse is mediated by a forest of thin columns that are planted throughout the interior of the space. Each supporting column tapers as it connects with the ground. This tapered column is rigorously repeated at various densities to create a seemingly monotonous field (d). As such, the columns shift the viewer’s eye toward openings in the roof and ground that frame the landscape and lighthouse, rather than the program in-between. The program is masked behind denser column clusters which help to separate private and public functions while still allowing the architecture to remain porous and light.

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