It is relatively rare that a project is planned from the beginning to be done in two phases. Usually, the proposals deal with a building in its entirety, considering that this overall composition will be the one to be built all at once. In our case, for a plot of land in Kifissia, the request was to build initially a single-storey house and, in the future, with a delay of a few years, to make it possible to expand in height. With this logic, one had to plan the whole project and the first, smaller phase of the private residence should be equally studied.

The particularity of this gradual construction made us pursue two different routes. Will the before and after be different or homogeneous? That is, will the double construction phase be showcased in the end or not? The first solution considered that the first phase would be a single-storey villa and the future phase would be visible higher up as a series of enclosed “towers”. The reasoning was not only to preserve a privacy of the ground floor residence of the client from the apartments of the superstructure. It was also desired to achieve a contrast between an architecture of large openings and horizontality with a volume of vertical masses that channel light through interior voids. There has been an ambivalence for the inspiration -whether our scheme was referring to SANAA’s 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa, 2004, a huge circle featuring tower-like structures on top) or to the familiar, rooftop structures at Athenian apartment buildings (usually visible only from higher floors, a surreal lineage of an “invisible” small-scale architecture that escapes all categorization and contrasts with the disciplined, repetitive configuration of all lower floors). Our second proposal preserves a homogeneity between all the floors but instead of the usual parallel offset of their contours, it attempts to articulate different overlapping shapes: The three floors may thus proceed from the largest to the smallest but their very contours do not obey any legible rule. Equally they choose every time -as in a collage – to withdraw in other directions and in other outlines, so that the building seems to be created by joining points in space. However, the basic principle of this solution was to maintain a series of trees on the western side of the plot and highlight them through the mediation of the largest swimming pool that would fit within the plot.

This family already had a residence. Although with several advantages -on a hill with a western view towards the Thermaikos gulf and a secure neighborhood- it presented significant limitations to any renovation. Their next step, to a much larger plot, 10 minutes away, with a view of surrounding trees and small slopes, was not self-evident. A new vision would be required: A residence of modern design that would extend into the landscape as if on a single story, with planted patios and a swimming pool.

First impression upon entry

Our proposal includes some short of discovery: We, as visitors, park inside, behind the fence and we face two small hills. We bypass them, to follow a long water feature at their edge –a feature that was initially audible but remained invisible. Behind the hills, as we advance, the cantilevered roof of the ground floor begins to be discerned.The owners welcome us at the front door which is kept completely invisible, perpendicular to our gaze. To our left, the first atrium, filters the view behind large fixed glass.

This crystalline surface extends opaquely, as the back lining of the living room –overimposed, we discern the reflection of the second central atrium of the residence. Located at the lower portion of this reflection, the flickering frame of the glass enclosed fireplace gives ample clues of the living room on the other side. We will circle around this wall to find ourselves in the living-dining room with views of the garden and pool, or we will continue to the other end of the patio to the kitchen, for another drink around its island. The privacy of the family remains unnoticed, upstairs: as the upper floor recedes from the wide perimeter of the ground floor ceiling, it enjoys the views of the planted plot and the two patios.

We have just parked on the ground level –vivid images of single-family houses of the neighborhood come to our mind. We enter a bright hall where reflections of metal linings maintain affinities with automobile design. Faced with the spacious two-story atrium with plants we are still led to believe that we remain at “ground floor.” This courtyard actually is the everyday central focus for the three bedrooms located around its perimeter. It take some more time to realize that behind the atrium, we are hovering above the garden with the cypress trees and the wide upward street of the neighborhood. We hear the music from downstairs and, if the kitchen door is left open, the aromas of cooking. Indeed, going down the bright staircase, we reach the living areas –on the ground floor in front of us is the historic garden with cypresses, jacarandas and angelicas. Opposite the fireplace, from the living room and the dining room, the view spreads horizontally, panoramically, to plants that extend as multiple filters. Another more comprehensive view of the garden is gained from higher up, from the second floor with a smaller footprint. With slender columns, with a marble facade towards the street, this penthouse rewards us with its unobstructed view towards Ymittos.

In the renovation of Santorini Image bungalows within the new Yes resort of the island, the room outlines were given. What we wanted to impart is a summer feeling: what you experience as you slowly descend down to Vlychada beach -the soft shades of beige volcanic ash on your right and left, along with the blue of the sea at the horizon, the final destination. How one transports blue from its conventional position -wooden frames- so as to occupy areas of the interior, whether these are walls or colored vertical zones for the wardrobes. Instead of the internal partitioning walls that the baths would otherwise entail, we chose woven filters. New terrazzo floors retain the references to the earthy Santorini palette (without using the predominant cement floors) and thin metal sections create a fabric low band on the walls -a soft base that absorbs inner sounds, seeking an alternative luxury of sensations, that of silence.

Our main gesture for this sloped site was to establish a single “platform” containing a large expanse of water (the “beach”) and to place across it the living areas of the house. The sleeping areas are located above, on the first floor, while auxiliary uses at the underground level, with access from the lowest street of the plot. From the higher street side, because of the fence, the plot appears empty -only trees and scrubs are discernible: the visitor’s sight can’t perceive the first floor of the bedrooms that is placed rather low, emulating a ground-floor residence from the street side –while the living areas and the pool (the platform) are actually placed one level down. After the fence, the only perceptible part of the house (apart from the sheltered bedrooms, filtered with blinds) is a glass lobby that receives visitors and is reflected in a lake of water lilies. The project layers three elements: the lake, the glass lobby and the patio. In the patio -with its ground level one level below, a plum tree emerges and, filtering the distant view of Athens, it is also reflected in the water lily pond. On the entry side, on the glass façade of the lobby three images overlap: the reflection of the pond upon the visitor’s image at the lobby, upon the plum tree behind the lobby. If we “removed” the lobby and the plum tree, the distant view of the city would be fully visible (no sleeping rooms would interfere) but the succession of all these images layered upon the glass, filters the view of Athens to a high percentage. A linear internal staircase leads the visitor down a level: from the lobby to the back of the atrium and from there to the living areas that open towards the “beach.” From the living areas, the view to the beach and Athens is now unhindered -it is even framed by a pergola that shades a linear deck on the left hand side. In the form of a promontory, this shady area takes up all the activities around the “beach” – it goes up to the edge of the water at the virtual end of the plot, where the mild slope of the ground turns into a steep slope towards the road. The finishes employ wooden elements and achieve a sense of lightness for walls and ceilings.

The owners’ goal for this three-story building was a lightweight architecture of thin profiles, instead of a prevalent approach that interprets modernism as a set of monolithic gray volumes with smaller openings. At the same time we would like to retain for these triplex apartments the impression of a single residence, so the motif of repetitive balconies should be avoided. Our proposal is to use glass partitions so as to unify balconies of slim profiles and dynamic placement -a reference both to Takis Zenetos’ graceful apartment buildings and Richard Neutra’s Case Study Houses. The experience of a single residence is pursued by the incorporation of a double height planted patio on the ground floor (seeking to merge the garden with the building in Filothei, a suburb that is particularly distinguished by its gardens) but also with the formation of a double height living area, capable of maximizing the view of the trees of the garden.

This renovation was not only adressing the funcional but also the symbolic: it became a total tranformation of an existing post modern villa into a minimalistic house. One of the first priorities in this renovation was the rearrangement of interior spaces so as to obtain a more functional plan. Our proposal places the dining room and the kitchen across the pool and in between creates a large semi covered space that becomes the new hub of outdoor life for the family. This pergola extended to the west, forms the new living room of the house, what constitutes the additional area in relation to the previous footprint. The above mentioned rearrangements offer privacy to those descending and exiting from the first floor. The main bedroom on the first floor is also renovated so as to orient the bed area towards the north west views.

The main purposes of the design are, on the one hand, the utilization of the buildings that already exist and, on the other hand, the adoption of an architectural language that restores the proportions and textures of a Cycladic architecture.

Regarding the first objective, the renovation and upgrading of the existing unit was preferred (instead of demolishing it and erecting new buildings), in the context of an ecological concept of preserving older shells and mitigating the energy footprint of construction works. Regarding the second objective we kept the scale of single-story buildings and restored the familiar scale of two-story buildings. To achieve this, wherever buildings had been constructed with facades that exceeded two-story facades of 7.5 meters high, we restored the proportion of the two-story building volume, framing with perimeter embankments and courtyards that act as bases for the rooms and ensure visual privacy for the users. This landscaping restores the familiar scale of the Cycladic facade with a maximum height of two floors and introduces a variety of materials that articulate the scale: stone in the bases and courtyards of the buildings juxtaposed with the plastered surfaces of the superstructure, achieve a variety of materials, a hierarchy and a richly textured surface, along the pedestrian path.

The two objectives we mentioned above have as their main concern the formation of a landscape in which the planting throughout the entire plot takes center stage. The proposal undertakes the preservation of all the trees that the plot already has (and, as the case may be, their transplanting) and the extension of plants near all the courtyards so that the visitors’ path is accompanied by Mediterranean plants, climbers, shrubs and trees that offer shade. Ending towards the sea and the basis of the view from the hotel unit, is the new swimming pool which acquires elongated proportions and has as its starting point the boundary line of the beach. Dotted platforms with reed umbrellas enter its perimeter, breaking down the scale with various arrangements of their shapes.

The renovation of these six apartments selects as its central concept the arcade: By dividing a floor at an office building, these apartments acquire elongated proportions and receive light only at their further end. The resulting plans do offer convincing reasons to pursue the concept of an arcade –what however remained to be defined was how the arcade would be translated here. We selected as our main reference the way an arcade’s glass facades reflect the natural, diffuse light at its entrance and then transfer it to its deep interior, thus enlivening an otherwise artificially lit public space, a cavernous recess in the urban fabric. Within this merging of arcade and apartment, we chose to upgrade a number of domestic accessories by lending them reflective shells. Among them, the painted glass shower, the niche of indoor plants lined with mirrors, an open wardrobe whose back becomes transparent glass (a showcase in reverse). The rhythm of mullions at arcade’s shop windows are emulated here as metal frames outlining furniture and the kitchen counter now disengaged from cooking activities and fridge, acquires an ambiguous presence –lightweight like a sideboard as it hovers above the floor, with no upper cabinets, it is lit by a centrally placed frame that resembles a handlebar. In this renovation, the palette of deep colors, allows one to perceive primarily the reflections of light, the main “building elements” of the arcade.

Landscape

In Milos Bay, the island folds inwards, seemingly forming a lake -from there the view of Adamas and the surrounding villages is unique.

Achivadolimni, the largest beach on the island with white sand and shallow waters, is located at the southernmost point of this gulf. It took its name from the lake next to the beach which is full of hard clams.

The plot of the Trencadís Hotel, with an area of 80 acres, is located two kilometers away from the island’s airport and culminates at the beach of Achivadolimni. The area was being operated by S&B company from 1954 to 1982 as a perlite mine, thus acquiring an amphitheater form. Today with its stepped section planted, fully integrated into the landscape, it has become an exemplar of restoration in the history of mines.

Simulation

 ‘‘Landscapes and places store memories, they save traces of lives long gone. What fascinates

me about those traces is that they are real, they are unique, they are always authentic. To me, landscapes are historical documents.’’

 (A Feeling of History, Peter Zumthor, Mari Lending, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2018)

A design reconstruction is attempted here, which withdraws elements from the Cycladic landscape and uses objects such as rocks, trees, sea and semantic tools such as outdoor life, the small-scale approach and what constitutes the image we have of the Mediterranean rural landscape. The densely organized area of Milos, full of berms, vegetation and manmade interventions used for agriculture and husbandry, is used as a ground rule for the organization of the proposal. While the way of organizing a residential proposal has traditionally been the grid, here the principle is the messy and natural landscape of the Cyclades.

The ground rule is rewritten in order to receive uses such as hotel rooms, public areas and outdoor areas. The proposal starts from the architecture of the landscape, instead of integrating it as usual, much later, in the design process. The basic principle is the construction of randomness and the incorporation of the overall proposal to the Cycladic landscape.

The contours and geometries of the landscape of Milos, but also the way in which human activity is organized on the island, are shifted and adapted to the scale of the area, composing an outdoor carpet, consisted of private and public uses.

The expansion of the standard program of a hotel is attempted here, including functions such as the public square, the threshing floor, the vineyard, the quarry, in order to compose a multi-layered landscape that is part of the organization of the surrounding area and attempts to bring back memories and build new ones.

The intervention forms an architecture of landscape: Rooms with planted roofs are assembled on the slope, creating a discreet layering of terraces that seemingly pre-existed. Although the stepped section of the restored perlite mine could be considered as a starting point for the proposal, the new rooms deliberately do not form a recognizable geometry of repetitive curves. They draw inspiration from the neighboring landscape of Milos itself: instead of the legible “organization” and order of a tourist resort, Trencadís’ layout refers to plots and plantings with polygonal or curved outlines that fit together like fabrics on a rug. Thus the hotel is not simply lost within a slope with parallel terraces -it camouflages its own architecture in a planted landscape of irregular geometry. With planted terraces interjected and orientating rooms to different sections of the panoramic view, one is actually inhabiting the very landscape of Milos.

If landscape design on sloped terrains typically idealizes the harmonious, ordered curves of a vineyard or a rice paddy, Trencadís refers to the Cycladic landscape of variety and chance. From afar, the lines and colors are unified like the fluid stone walls carved by Antonio Gaudi -with few straight lines, his facades are decorated with Trencadís, the colorful mosaics, made of fragments of ceramic tiles. In the new hotel at Achivadolimni, ceramic tiles, lava, mosaic, perlite, quarry, obsidian, become the new references.

The memory of the mine -not only that of the particular site but also that of the rich mining history of the island- is preserved. Trencadís Hotel refers to the mine indirectly, not to its pre-existing amphitheater shape but to its energy: its public areas are carved in the slope and feature two large excavations, two deep quarries in the landscape, filled with water at their lowest level. Walking through the reception, the spa, the restaurants, one watches the light descend on such a narrow courtyard, an excavated with precision orthogonal quarry, flooded at its deepest point. A second cut, the linear pool overlooking the sea, repeats this geometrical rigor and contrasts it with the earth-anchored public buildings of buried footprints. In a fitting analogy, the road connecting the highest slope with the lowest, coastal part of the plot, crosses under the community road.

A home of your own

Trencadís’ rooms simulate a promenade at a mountain village. Their paths unfold on the terrain, constantly changing the vistas, enriching our perception with different atmospheres: the first glimpse is not enough -one has to discover where the rooms end, how the road will unfold, what is hidden behind a corner. The narrative of the traditional village is maintained not by its iconography -its picturesque facades- but by the movement of the body within the landscape. The proposal pursues the particular, the local, that which is not readily recognized and consumed because it doesn’t fit a recognizable structure. It encourages discovery.

Rooms are grouped in three types with different footprints: types A and B become the predominant types and only at the beach front one is to encounter the Sand Dune Villas. The first two types are grouped in four or five units, under a common planted roof with a polygonal outline -each with a plunge pool and access from the back that ensures privacy, separated with berms and vegetation. The basic principle of both typologies is transparency and natural lighting.

Type A is a rectangular typology with access both from the front view and the backyard. The bed is placed in the center of the room overlooking the private jacuzzi and the sea. The shower is designed on the front side of the room, overlooking the sea and the vegetation.

Type B, is a larger, L shaped room with a bedroom and a bathroom, with access from the backyard. It has an unobstructed view of the sea, while the window that separates the inside and the outside at this facade, slides towards the wall, unifying the inside and the outside and practically doubling the living space of the unit. Residents bathe in a partially covered jacuzzi, in complete privacy, as if they were in a cave. The shower is designed on the back of the room, overlooking the planted garden.

The backyard is a central element of both typologies and plays the role of a hidden garden with prickly pears, aloes and agaves, where the resident can be protected from the north wind, while having maximum privacy.

Οn the beach front, the Sand Dune Villas claim a special place in the landscape. They depart from the discreet, “earthy” architecture of the rest of the rooms and stand out more like cabanas upon the beach. Given large autonomous courtyards, you cross your personal garden to reach your door. Their architecture is set to create memorable experiences: Eating in the sunken courtyard with a pool engulfing you, like being on a yacht. Having a shaded yard with aromatic plants that you touch with your fingertips when immersed in the bathtub. Facing the fire on cool days as you ascend the last steps before entering the living room. To be covered with a protruding roof, sharp at its perimeter like obsidian, the glass-like volcanic rock from which the perlite derives from. Smelling the wood on all the walls and having the curtain move from the wind –sensing the summer itself on the beach…

The five rooms that we renovated overlook the volcano, not far away from the port of the island. A light palette of materials was chosen with terrazzo floors. The existing rooms retain their orthogonal shapes and emphasis is given to the design of furniture, especially beds and lamps. A new bed was designed with its headboard made of leather straps. Two custom lights with circular shapes were also designed: one for the vanity desk features an orange plexiglas, as well as a circular mirror directly in front of it, sliding at various positions, from the full disclosure of the Plexiglas, till its total concealment. A second light fixture is vertical, extends from floor to ceiling and features two concentric drums -the inside of them either closes the vertical gap on the perimeter drum, or, by rotating on one side, reveals the whole width of the gap so that refracted light is maximized.

How could one revive vernacular architecture in such an exceptional setting as Imerovigli, with its view of Caldera, opposite the Skaros rock? At Santorini Grace Hotel we have attempted a modern interpretation of vernacular traits: We have refrained from using vaults, the typical roof infinitely replicated in the island, choosing horizontal outlines instead that bend in plan in order to follow the land contours. The restaurant, located at the level of the pool, features an exterior thick wall with concave openings and a black interior of polygonic, rock like geometries. Some of the hotel rooms are built with the region’s dark volcanic rock with enlarged gaps from which rays of light are allowed to pass. All interior furniture is built in, using the wall thickness in the traditional settlements of the island. Floors in the new hotel are of cement –together with the black stones in the walls they form a dialogue with the island’s unique geological strata.

In this renovation of an existing abandoned building in Mykonos we wanted to maintain references to the island itself: To the rounded rocks scattered, imposing, in the landscape. To the wooden rooms protruding in the iconic Little Venice neighborhood in Chora and the traditional boats free floating in the Aegean blue. To the reeks spotting the landscape, used in many pergolas in the island. To the whitewashed paths in Chora and to the organic geometries of Paraportiani Church in Mykonos. Entry to the hotel is through a new fluid landscape of successive steps that seem to hover above a shallow slice of water. They introduce to a cool garden in the heart of L shaped in plan hotel. From there it is possible to access the pool and the restaurant, the latter formed as small islets in shallow water, shaded by reeds. In the interior of the rooms, free standing wooden screens house individual uses: closets, bathrooms and furniture. All acquire a curvature like rocks and traditional local boats; they become wooden islands sailing within the white interior. Along them, the bed and coffee tables form a family of shorts –original designs that define a unique interior, one designed specifically for this property.

Noūs, this new resort just outside Messaria, Santorini, member of Design Hotels^TM, combines the new and the old. It is renovating the pre-existing hotel unit (Santorini Image) and expanding it adjacently with new buildings, reaching a total capacity of 121 rooms. The prior layout of functions was revised in favor of a new overall design that placed landscape as the primary element: with a stepped configuration at the entrance, with a linear gradation from flower beds to oleanders at the spa area, with introverted private gardens at the bungalows, landscape creates different atmospheres at each area.

Instead of the preexisting reception which was close to the community road, with direct access from the side road within the plot, we decided to move it to a more central position, to create an entry ceremonial promenade that constitutes a transition and decompression from the hustle of the island to the calmness of Noūs. We designed this promenade with shaded areas, plantation and decorative water: One crosses three successive pergolas designed as aerial, suspended gardens with climbing plants – shaded sitting areas are formed at their ends. The design of each such tension-wire pergola -a reinterpretation of Athenian overhead trolley cables- retracts its supports (and thus the plant’s trunks) beyond the limits of peripheral vision. Escorting the entrance path, on either side of the stepped ramp, a water course rolls over stepped lava slabs – a reference to the island’s volcanic history.

Arriving at the new reception, we are greeted behind the reception desk by a carved black wall. One could say in resemblance with the first image one has when approaching Santorini by boat: with the black rocks on the volcano and Nea Kameni. The reception opens up towards the central swimming pool, as the latter frames the view towards the sea and bends in the distance to the left -there, it forms a smooth, artificial beach towards the restaurant. Overhead, natural materials are selected: in the pool bar makuti covers the lower side of metal pergolas that take on organic shapes, while inside the restaurant the ceiling acquires illuminated wicker baskets. The presence of nature is also preserved in the bar on the upper floor in a large green wall as well as – on the terrace – in new metal pergolas that are frames for climbing frames. In the bar as well as in the central internal staircase leading to it, the extensive mosaic floors of the unit are combined with trapezoidal marbles, creating surfaces rich in color: the coexistence of these small and large-scale random materials simulate the fragmentation of materials in this volcanic island.

Lower on the property, the spa serves as a connecting element in the overall plot: placed centrally, it unfolds from the South part of the plot to the North part. Its inner sheltered courtyard of variegated planting is continued to the north by an expanse of oleanders below the central pool. In this way the carving of the landscape from the spa courtyard to the oleanders, unites new and old, the new suites with the renovation of the pre-existing Hotel, Santorini Image (1987-2010). The spa maintains a low profile so that escapes from neighboring suites remain unimpeded towards the East, towards the sea. The inner courtyard of the spa is suited to its function –instead of a large air-tight building, here you cross diagonally across the courtyard with its irregular planted areas: from the reception and changing rooms, across, to the gym, vitamin bar and treatment rooms. The west wing, due to the slope of the ground, is partially submerged in the ground. With this introverted typology, the spa simulates the natural ravines dug into the island’s volcanic pumice (called aspa), which characterize important settlements of the island such as Phoenikia and Vothonas (here the name itself means in Greek “large natural pit, ground subsidence”). It is this configuration of the natural terrain in the above settlements that leads to the construction of the characteristic cave dwellings on their sides. In the spa, white brick filters create porous boundaries and a play of light and shadow, a direct reference to one of the most successful architectural vocabularies of the modern reconstruction of Santorini after the 1956 earthquake, as it was then applied to the schools, banks and residences of the island.

In the existing linear buildings of Noūs that flank the pool on the North and West sides, the renovation boldly replaced the central corridor with a completely new open-air route that offers a play of light and shade: In this way the arrival to the first floor rooms is made by a bridge which successively crosses seven courtyards with brick filters framing spacious bath rooms. In the creation of these rooms, the integration of conical recesses becomes a central theme, both in their new facades and in the interiors where, framed by tinted mirrors, they form modern “caves.” The rooms on the ground level have courtyards –makuti under the metal pergolas frames the fields around the unit and relates to them in texture and color.

The basic “icon” of Santorini’s architecture, the vault, was dominant in the pre-existing resort, Santorini Image, completed in 1987. And in fact, multiplied, it covered all buildings, regardless of proportions: From bungalows to the largest linear buildings, whether they housed rooms in a row or common areas. Realizing that the vault had ended up being scenography, we removed all vaults in our renovation, seeking alternative ways to connect to the island. In other words, it was understood from the beginning that the vaults  “short-circuited” any attempt at architectural renovation. It was, after all, superfluous in terms of construction: Historically the vault had been extensively developed in Santorini in single-storey buildings due to the almost total lack of timber on the island –in combination with the strong mortars offered by aspa, it provided solutions that bridged openings without the use of wooden beams, also providing cooling (due to the height) in the hot climate of the island. Visible vaults were not used on the island for two-story buildings –all two-story buildings (as well as some single-story buildings) were built with vaults (or cross vaults) in the interior, hidden behind a flat roof. The reinstatement during the extensive reconstruction of the island of the two-story concrete visible vaults on the roofs no longer followed a constructional necessity but attempted a fictitious, falsified connection with traditional architecture.

We attempted a corresponding revision in the organization of the landscape in the bungalow section. This was resolved in 1987 as if in a campus, where radial paths connected the buildings, like autonomous wings of a university. Among them a planting of conifers, lavender and shrubs which, like the extensive lawns around the old pool, were not associated with Santorini. Our research around the formation of this gently sloping landscape resulted in the formation of clusters/neighborhoods protected by curved walls: The movement between the bungalows is characterized by these soft curved walls that ascend and descend gradually. These fluid, organic contours continue the spa design and create enclosed private gardens instead of the prior “open” landscape.

We were inspired for this organic design by driving to Vlychada beach in Santorini: the car gradually descends towards the sea in an arid landscape where sand dunes of aspa form a road with continuous, gentle curves. A barren landscape with dry grasses and vines unfolds before you, a desert aesthetic. Many other beaches on the back side of the island have the same materiality, such as Baxedes further north, while the well-known stone terraces on the planted eastern slopes of the island preserve curved outlines. This arid relief landscape can also be found in Spain, in Bardenas Reales, in Navarre. Another important reference is Andreas Gursky’s two photos, Bahrain I and Bahrain II which are digital edits from the (equally deserted) Bahrain Formula 1 circuit (the edit adds additional laps to the existing track design). And without a doubt there are influences in the curved lines, especially in the spa from Zaha Hadid or from Enric Miralles – architects we looked at carefully, since their work refreshingly attempts this osmosis of landscape and building.

Looking for novelty, having removed the vaults in the bungalows, we shaped their facades with free walls that end in slanted sections, defining balconies on the first floor and semi-open spaces on the ground floor. This shaping of the facades gives variety to the whole, attempts a built simulation of the shadows falling from volume to volume and abstractly transforms the land drops in the steep Caldera that faces the volcano. This vocabulary on the walls is also shared with the new suites located east and west of the spa: in these rooms their walls extend towards the view and unfold intricately demarcating courtyards and pools. From above one can see the terraced contours of their roofs aligned towards the sea and the linear gardens that mediate offering privacy. In the rooms, we chose new mosaic surfaces, wood paneling with surface burnishing, lights made from volcanic rock and dividers with fabric linings, materials that make up a rich palette with references to earthy hues as they unfold in a kind of geological section during the island tour.

This house has been articulated as a stacking of its three floors –its ground floor expands lengthwise in the plot and flanks a linear pool: the dining room on its one side and the living room on its other retain an immediate, unburdened contact with water. On the same floor the privacy from incoming guests is secured by a long wall that demarcates the entry path and protects visually both the living room and its terrace on its other side. This terrace cantilevers towards the street side, above the garage ramp. On the ground floor the dining, living and kitchen areas retain an open arrangement while a staircase of very dark tones becomes a circulation core in stark contrast with the whitish tones predominant in the interior.

We are imagining a cold winter night. The exhaust of the car after ignition at the driveway, the dewiness of the surrounding forest, the glistening pool at the background and the flames of the glass fireplace, built in the street façade. This overlapping of fire and water creates a layered image where the limits of hot and cold are blurred: the heated outdoor pool’s evaporation replicates the effect of warmness at the background. In this residence that spans parallel to the coast in Chalkidiki, a pergola extends to all sides of the house, accommodating vehicle entry, parapet for guests, living room’s roof and outdoor shaded areas. The bedroom areas at the upper floor retain a completely blank façade towards the guest who upon entry, descends gradually within the sloped landscape.

This 50s apartment building is distinguished by its variety of uses: It is very close to the most central square in Athens, Syntagma Square and this explains its liveliness, particularly noticeable as you go up to the 4th floor, reaching the renovated apartment -the succession of open doors, workshops, commercial uses emulate a city that has entered the building. The block of flats is the acute end of a building block, which gives plenty of light on its three sides, but at the same time results in the trapezoid shape of the floor plan. In the zone that leads to the small alleyway in the back, the lighting gradually decreases significantly, so it was decided to remove all the internal walls and insert into that zone a freestanding bath. The differentiation of this “island” is also emphasized by the way it is made: with metallic frames and reinforced glass it forms both the shower and the back of the kitchen. In the same sense, the wash basin is placed in cantilevered orange bench that is a continuation of the wooden headboard of the bed. Similarly cantilevered are the bedside tables on either side of the bed –made of a circular section with reinforced glass, they are fixed at a short distance from the headboard itself.

This project, a renovation of a hotel left in its concrete framework, is on the road connecting Oia and Fira, a journey with beautiful rocks of warm earthy tones. We created an almost natural landscape of buildings, like huge rocks that have rolled over from the street. The facades of these volumes are finished with warm brown colors. As one approaches the reception, he is passing next to a retaining wall and the planted roofs of the common areas. For the open areas around the rooms we propose a “carpet” quality by using various textures of pebble finishes and strips of plantation: this east facing side of Santorini is characterized by stepped plantations with a nice variety of textures and colors. The stone facades of some of the rooms continue this dialogue of the hotel with Santorini’s landscape. In their interior the color palette relates to the island and its traditional architecture: the beige tones of aspa and pumice, the wooden doors of the old tomato factories, the curved geometries of the cave like traditional interiors.

The challenge here was to implement the logic of the loft to renovate an apartment of the 50s. This was interpreted not only as the dismantling of the intermediate walls and the creation of a single area for ​​living, dining and cooking. It also meant questioning the privacy of the bedroom which would most of the time remain visible, placed in the zone of the living areas, a front zone behind the facade. All ancillary uses -the baths and the dressing room- are recessed to a second zone, around the entrance of the apartment and towards the backyard. In the bedroom the wardrobe is treated as an island that separates from the bath. It corresponds to the basin which appears as a marble island in the bath and the open central kitchen counter. In the apartment space flows, with the insertion of individual solid islands.

This new hotel is designed in an olive grove with views towards the sea. Its focus will be its restaurant, since its owners already own a highly successful restaurant in Thessaloniki. Therefore this new culinary destination in Elia Nikitis, in Chalkidiki, is differentiated from the hotels that happen to have a restaurant. The gourmet culture not only gives primacy to the new restaurant (first impression upon arrival), it also introduces the food culture within the room itself: local specialties are featured on the interior (a display of unique items that reverses the typical concealment of generic products in a mini bar) and eating areas claim particular importance in each room. The restaurant, open only for dinner to the general public, redefines luxury by introducing extensive shallow water surfaces. Between the restaurant and rooms, front of house areas (including an impressive pool) are to be found. Higher up on the slope, 15 rooms retain a low profile with their single floor arrangement, ensuring unobstructed views towards the sea. Landscape becomes here paramount, maintaining the natural ground between the buildings, introducing green roofs and by recessing the facades –with their slim profiles towards the view, the rooms look as if they are shadows in the olive grove.

The renovation of this apartment entailed an extensive remodeling of the interior layout: on its first level, we attached a dining room to the former living room, establishing a continuous space with its main orientation towards an impressive view. Underlining the direction of this space, a tripartite wall spans front and back terraces, housing storage space, concealed lighting, a lift mechanism for a flat screen television and a fireplace. On the second floor of the apartment the master bedroom is rotated so as to face the view and acquires extra width by removing the adjacent bath. This bath is relocated to the further end of this floor, establishing visual links to the nearby planted terrace.

For this renovation of rented units in Megalochori Village we focused on the landscaping of the quite extensive outdoor areas, given the quite impressive views towards the volcano that are offered. Stepped arrangements and selected plantation areas ensure privacy for incoming guests as well as privacy for the usage of the Jacuzzis. Rooms are renovated so as to ensure more functional arrangements and to allow better views of the caldera.

The design of this resort is anchored on the stream that traverses the 170 acre plot. On its west side luxury villas generate a low density landscape scattering of free standing units. On the east side the hotel includes communal areas of a larger scale: reception, lobbies, conference center, rooms, restaurants, spa and common pools that become a second wet landscape echoing the stream itself. Within this variety of the densities, architecture retains a single organic vocabulary with curvilinear geometries reflected in the design of all of the landscape and the water elements. The facades of these convex and concave buildings often acquire wooden vertical blinds. These blinds beyond their shading function, they refer to the reeds that line the stream. A variety of alternating views between buildings, oblique and curved geometries, make the path with the resort like a promenade in a Mediterranean landscape.

This house was designed to screen out the neighboring buildings on both sides. To enable that a centrally located element becomes the focus of attention: an elevated garden on the first floor becomes the vista upon entry through a double height reception hall. On the ground floor, seemingly supporting it, a vitrine is specially designed to showcase a private collection of clocks. This garden becomes a horizontal landscape reflected on the large mirror of the master bath. A small shift in plan of the first and second floors from the outline of the ground floor is accompanied by a slight chromatic differentiation.

Τhe site is in Kantza, an agricultural area in the northern suburbs of Athens, with olive groves marked occasionally with oblong sheds of a small scale. The new house acquires an elongated northern facade along the street, one with few openings. Openings are mainly placed on the other (southern) side which opens up to the view of the olive grove. Upon entrance, guests are faced with an interior courtyard, a segment of artificial nature, reintroduced from the neighboring landscape. A kitchen benefits from this walled open air atrium while opening its other side towards the southern view. Living and dining areas are placed across the house, while a staircase intervenes at a pivotal position within the house. On the first floor bedrooms are to found while parking spaces and ancillary rooms are placed in the basement.

In this new residence, an oblong site with a downward slope towards the road is divided lengthwise into two strips, emphasizing the oblong form. With this linear distribution of space a clear distinction is made between living and service zones. The entrance forms a transverse element in the narrower of the two zones– a three-storey space where the linear stairs are lit from above and narrow slits between metal louvers offer glimpses towards the swimming pool. Immediately adjacent to this is an open-plan zone with the living-dining and kitchen functions that is open at its ends towards the gardens. Above the dining area, a void mediates between the two children’s rooms on the first floor. The master bedroom is located on the second floor with an extensive terrace that spreads out to the front along its entire width. Its set-back in relation to the children’s room helps to distance it from the street, creating a retreat whose privacy is emphasized by the slender metal louvers rising from the floor below.

This apartment occupies the ground and first floor of an apartment building that we designed in Nea Smyrni, Athens. The autonomous entry to this apartment is made through a ramp. Upon entry, one encounters the apartments’ double height space corresponding to the living room area. The marble floor of the living room area is almost equal with the deck of the inner courtyard, a wooden floor that protrudes in the apartment serving as an extended landing for the staircase that leads to its first floor. In the single height area of the ground floor, the dining room and kitchen area are to be found. The fireplace is formed by two parallel slabs of concrete –it is embedded in a gypsum board wall that includes slots for air-conditioning and lighting. The bed on the first floor is kept at a distance from the inner balcony so as to secure privacy for the owners upstairs. Apart from the bed, no other furniture is meant to occupy the first floor –wardrobes are meant to occupy the perimeter of the space, demarcating the bath area.

This apartment building occupies a corner site and has been designed so as to allow the apartments to connect equally to the two streets as well as to the back garden. The staircase has been placed on the side so as to allow on the ground floor a visual connection with the garden on the backyard. This corner arrangement allows the staircase to be clearly defined from the street, demarcated by a vertical zone of u-glass, a departure from the ill-lit circulation cores of conventional apartment buildings. The apartment building in Nea Smirni comprises of three typical apartments, a double height ground floor studio, as well as a three storied top apartment. This last apartment, defined by a series of horizontal blinds, has a pool adjacent to the master bedroom as well as a balcony that overlooks the double height living areas. The last floor with the pool and master bedroom frames an impressive view of the Acropolis.

This residence attempts to reintroduce the uncanny feeling when the inside and the outside merge, when private is camouflaged as public, when the certainty of entry tends to be substituted with an ambiguity. Instead of the claustrophobia of small entry halls, entry here is through an open linear space, a zone transparent till the rear elevation of the house. As soon as we grasp this view towards the backyard, then we turn in order to face the main spaces of the residence. The ambiguous privacy of this residence is articulated on different levels: by its fence of perforated aluminium panels, by the blind walls of the first floor. The neighborhood is perplexed for the identity of the building (is it a residence, a company or something else?). The public identity of this house is retained with its semi-private spaces (the entry/courtyard underneath the skylight) as well as with the way it enables a surveillance of its owners. Their movement along the glass corridor on the first floor is open to public scrutiny from the level of the street.