Sail Sculpture Mediterranean Sea

Private Project in the South of France

Placed on a precipice, 30 meters above the Mediterranean Sea, 2 white architectural sails with sharp masts like spears, watch over the deep blue sea.
The architectural sails are intended to protect the villa from exorbitant light and heat. While the upper layer of the sail composition has to withstand the harsh sea climate with high dynamic wind loads and a burning sun, the sub-sail is especially created to filter the UV-light (with a special coating) and to block the heat between the 2 layers. The warm air between the 2 layers flows up, as in a chimney, and brings very efficient cooling during the summer months at the Mediterranean.
The sub-sail follows the swift curved forms of the main sail. I see them as a couple in a ballet, touching each other’s fingers only. The lower layer touches the main sail only at the corner tips. But at the same time it has an own character with a more delicate lighter textile. The two main sails follow the typical singularities of the site: instead of hacking away trees, the supple forms are sculptured around the old trees. The fierce and sharp looking male masts stab through the white sails, as if they have lanced holes in the tensioned forms. Those holes or contemporary oeil-de-boeuf are designed to create views from the upper terraces to the swimming pool and to the magnificent beauty of the sea. The masts are anchored with strong stainless steel wires, usually used in the marine world, into the rocks of the precipice.
A fine detail that I borrowed from the Japanese paper windows: see the shadow lines of the patterns of the above layer on the lower layer. These shadow lines create a tree-dimensional effect to the 2D layer of the sail.