Selene Villa

Selene is a two-storey villa on a 1,450 m² plot in Ras Al Jundi, Amman. The land rises about 11 metres across its width. The house sits on a single level platform cut into the slope, with retaining walls on the high side and a long stone wall on the low side.

The name comes from moonlight. Two wings form an L around the pool terrace, and that terrace opens to the south-east and south, the part of the sky the moon crosses over Amman. Toward the road the house is mostly closed stone. Most of the large glass faces the terrace.

At one end of the 10.5 by 5.5 metre pool, benches sit on a shallow ledge at water level, with their backs to the terrace, facing the water.

A curved ramp at 15% climbs from the low edge of the plot to a forecourt with the entrance and a two-car garage. Pedestrians reach the terrace by a separate stair set into the low wall.

The ground floor holds the entrance, reception, dining and living rooms, a kitchen with a service kitchen and pantry, and a mechanical room. A curved stair leads to the first floor, which has a family living room, a kitchenette, a master bedroom with its own dressing room and bathroom, and four more bedrooms.

The walls are matabbeh and tobzeh limestone, with timber panels set into recesses around the upper windows. The upper floor projects past the glass of the ground floor and shades it.