42 DIGS.NET
| 3.24.23
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P R O F I L E | K R A K . A R C H I T E C T S
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is still imagined as mythological is simply in
the soil. One of a distinctly Mediterranean
persona, expressed in rocky coastlines,
native scrub, and crystalline seas with the
allure of a thousand treacherous sirens. In
this cradle of land and lore, Casa Katana
is contemporary legend of a kind, a design
as bold and visionary as the hand behind it
but blazingly futuristic, as if sent here from
a time centuries from now—maybe even
worlds away.
This is not folly, however, but provocation,
a searching piece of architectural work.
Conceptualized with both virtue and
logic, using light, shadows and the void
as synthetic tools, the starkly angular
form nonetheless defies conventional
slice in the earth so precise, as
if rendered by blade—a single-
edge Japanese katana sword,
in particular—marks a highly
conceptual residential design
by Konstantinos Stathopoulos of
Greece-based KRAK. Architects. Named
for the instrument's sharp yet gentile cut,
the leisure residence Casa Katana pierces
the senses almost immediately, a sleek,
ultramodern outlier in an ancient landscape
in southern Crete. But in fact, this
architectural experiment is integrated into
the terrain, minimizing visual disturbance
to the site and leaving its beauty unspoiled.
T h e s u b t e r r a n e a n d w e l l i n g i s
sympathetically situated to its mythic
surround. How could it be otherwise? The
birthplace of the divine archers Apollo
and Artemis, Crete is steeped in a sense
of wonder remembered in the gods and
monsters of ancient Greece. That the place
