White Pebble Suites

Contact Person: Karagianni Katerina

Company: ΚΚΜΚ Architects

Photographer: Vaggelis Paterakis

Phone: 6947/724926

DESCRIPTION

White Pebble Suites is a luxury suites complex at Milos Island, Greece.

The design concept originates from the Cycladic topographical contours. The natural environment of the Aegean Sea dominated by sun, sea and wind, has created the distinctive forms of the island scenery, with the smoothly curved rocks over the sea. We envisaged the building’s shell like a rock smoothened by water and wind.

The evolution of the concept lies on 2 crucial factors. The local architecture and the relation to the sea and the views.

Milos Island has a strong local architecture tradition that we had to respect, maintain and incorporate into our design. We tried to extract the most distinctive characteristic of it and build a contemporary architectural language based on them. The three principal aspects that we extracted are the white building surfaces, the smooth filleted corners on all volume edges and the fluidity of geometries and functions.

The project is located at a seafront plot overlooking the sea and the neighbouring island of Kimolos. Sea views were a crucial parameter to the design. All 12 rooms needed to have a main opening with a direct view to the sea. A ‘V’ shape layout was chosen for the narrow triangular plot. "Water element" penetrates the plot, "pushing" the built part aside, leaving the middle part for the common area. Thus, the common area is protected from the strong winds.

Adhering to the local building regulations, that prescribe script morphological rules conforming to traditional styles, all buildings are covered in white plaster, a typical technique in vernacular island architecture. All floors are covered in forged cement, creating a fluidity between interior and exterior.

First floor is offseted to the ground floor, creating narrow linear gardens. These gardens bring nature to the upper floor and offer privacy to the rooms. Linear gardens are found also at the ground level. Carefully selected plants of the Mediterranean flora create privacy from the passing visitor, without blocking the views.

The entrance of the complex is from the road, where the visitor enters at a higher level and gradually discovers the common area and enjoys the full opening towards the view.

As the intense sunlight falls on the white continuous curvy walls, it constantly alters the perception of the exterior volumes of the building, and an interplay of shadows and light takes place throughout the day. Protection from the sunlight is provided by metallic-framed pergolas covered by rows of thick rope, that create distinctive patterns of shade.

The linear arrangement of spaces and uses has been extended into the interior space of the rooms. There, curvy walls along with built-in furniture organize the different uses of the rooms and provide an organic aesthetic to the design.

Although materials and construction techniques are consistent with traditional building methods, computational design has been applied to the architectural synthesis, providing the whole project with an elegant mixture of intimate and contemporary aesthetics.

The architectural design of the project started in 2019 and construction started in 2020 and lasted 2 years. The hotel is in operation from 2022.

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