Sun sculpture
Stunning water views of the Cyclades can be taken in from the pool.
Glass lights by Bomma Lighting hang in the dining area, where Wishbone chairs by Carl Hansen surround a dining table made by Block722 Architects.
Sliding doors and built-in shelving display and disguise features in the kitchen.
The pool area, which features custom-designed day-beds by Nikos Haritos, is perfectly suited to those wanting to relax.
Patios and mini balconies were added to the house, making it possible to access the outside from every room.
In the living room, the aesthetic is equally as laid back as outside, with a Moon table by Mos Design arranged in its centre.
A bathroom is practical but homely; the master bedroom includes a custom-made headboard by Block722 and an assortment of soft textures.
The many seating options outside mean that the home-owners are able to accommodate guests, turning their relaxation space into social space.
From Mykonos, the home-owners can look out to other islands in Greece’s archipelago.
Trees sit comfortably against the home’s exterior; staircases leading to bedrooms on different levels are narrow and discreet.
The sand-coloured frontage evokes the dusty earth surrounding it, thus standing in stark contrast to the resplendent white of the neighbouring houses.
Comfortable lounge furniture with occasional tables are used throughout the interiors, as well as practical fixtures such as shelves and seats, which give the rooms character.
This Greek island holiday home combines the best of traditional architecture with modern, worldly comforts, textiles and interiors.
After 10 years, Christina and her husband George (first names used at their request) know their Mykonos Island holiday home inside-out and backwards.
During the course of the day, for instance, they know where to find the best places to read, to sleep or to listen to the nearby ocean. They know from which vantage points the morning light or the sunset tends to glow most beautifully, and they know which corner of the outside area offers the best protection from the northern wind.
“We felt really at ease here right from the start,” Christina recalls, “but it was the right time to modernise the traditionalist style of the house and pour our combined knowledge into redesigning it in accordance with our own [taste].” For this purpose, the couple commissioned Block722 Architects, a nascent architecture and interior design studio based in Athens. In just a few years, the firm has made a name for itself throughout Greece, thanks to a combination of light and airy as well as cosy and relaxed projects.
This ascent has come in part as a result of its founders’ (Greek-Swedish duo Sotiris Tsergas and Katja Margaritoglou) complementary skills. Whereas Tsergas gives a modern interpretation to traditional Greek architecture, Margaritoglou uses beautiful fabrics and comfortable upholstered furniture to create a certain Swedish snugness.
As part of the pre-design research, Christina and George invited team members from Block722 to their house for a few days so that they could experience its ‘mood’ for themselves.
The property is suffused in a pleasant, holiday atmosphere; it’s bathed in light and faces the sea. Thick walls and window reveals protect the interior of the house from the summer heat, making air conditioning unnecessary. The sand-coloured frontage evokes the dusty earth surrounding it, thus standing in stark contrast to the resplendent white of the neighbouring houses. On a clear day, from the living area, you can see the neighbouring islands of Delos and Renia, the centre of the Cyclades.
From this set of architectural moves, the home-owners and the design team soon agreed that the layout should remain untouched (for the most part) as it helps create an intimate atmosphere and gives a sense of openness. While the living and kitchen areas form a continuum and meet in the entrance hall, the two areas are optically separate because they’re on different levels. It’s possible, however, to see from one into the other via a small internal patio. The bedrooms in the main house are situated on different levels and are reached via narrow, shaft-like staircases.
One of the main challenges faced by the designers was capitalising on this timeless feel. To this effect, the first thing the young team did was to remove the blue wooden flooring and replace it with a simple light-grey layer of cement. They then smoothed out the rough plaster on the walls and painted it white. They had some of the existing windows bricked up but also added new ones. Patios and mini balconies were added to the house, making it possible to access the outside from every room.
The team also redesigned the interior of the house, bringing in comfortable lounge furniture with occasional tables, as well as practical fixtures such as shelves and seats, which give the rooms character. For the textures, Margaritoglou chose soft, flowing fabrics that reflected the colours of the island: grey, brown and flat blue-grey tones.
“I believe the atmosphere, the ‘vibes’ a house gives off, are much more important than loads of fancy furniture,” the interior designer says. “I want it to feel light and snug,” she says, explaining that she buys most of the textures she uses – mainly cotton and linen – in her homeland of Sweden and has the carpets made to her own designs in Portugal. The team also custom-designed the oak kitchen and the basket-weave seats, which were made by a small workshop on the Greek mainland.
For the outside area, Christina wanted more variety – more corners and niches for different activities and different people. “We have lots of visitors when we’re on the island,” the Athens resident explains, alluding to the fact that, in Greece, it’s common to spend the summer with friends and put them up in one’s home. For this reason, on the lower floor of the house, there’s a small guest apartment with a private entrance and, on the grounds, there’s a separate building with a jacuzzi.
A communal area for all of the house’s inhabitants has been created around the new swimming pool, complete with dining areas, places for lying down and sunbathing (or dozing in the shadows), small patios and vantage points. It’s a welcomed recipe for Christina: “I’m noticing more and more that, whenever I’m here, I don’t actually want to leave again.”
This article first appeared in Urbis magazine.
