BOUTIQUE HOTEL | SANTORINI | 2011

This existing four storey hotel of the 1960’s, built on one of the most unique places of this world, the Caldera of Fira settlement in Santorini island, completely disrupted the surrounding environment.

The building’s full-length volume is carved out, removing pieces of significant size and trying to address it as a complex of three smaller volumes, each of them of a different earth color.

The limited openings, are placed based on a morphological randomness, aiming in the creation of a more natural effect, congenital to the prosthetic principle of traditional Cycladic Architecture.

Most openings are inclined to directly face the view, with the inclination being imprinted to the volume’s surface itself, creating slanting areas around the openings.

As a result, the plasticity of form is intensified, the volume’s tectonic nature is enhanced and the building springs to life through the bright natural light of the Cyclades that casts intense, ever changing shadows, on the natural materials used, inspired by the island’s volcanic landscape.