The Greek island of Skiathos is part of a small, forest-covered cluster in the north Aegean that is close to the mainland. As such, its traditional architecture sits somewhere between the islands and the mountains, combining elements from both regions. The medieval town of Skiathos features low, white-washed houses, like the ones typically encountered across the Aegean, but their roofs are hipped and covered with tiles, just like in the villages of the nearby mountain of Pilio.
In a large plot on Skiathos’s south coast, Local Local has designed a holiday home that takes into account the island’s unique architectural character. The beachfront plot is neighbouring several other homes and enjoys private access to the beach. The client already had a design in their hands from a previous architect, which followed a more modernist approach with an imposing, orthogonal geometry. The challenge was to transform a design that reflected the aesthetics and lifestyle preferences of a previous decade into something more grounded, contemporary, and integrated into the landscape.
Our office retained the footprint and volumes of the previous design, all the while making significant adjustments to reduce its monolithic appearance. The two main volumes of the house (containing the shared living spaces and two bedrooms, respectively) were given a roof with tiles, drastically reducing the visual impact of the building and bringing it into dialogue with its context. The choice of exposed stone and climbing plants for parts of the exterior further softens the building’s large volume and creates a more harmonious connection with the terrain.
The interiors have been envisioned as warm, welcoming, and tactile, with the use of natural stone for the floors and painted wood for the window frames and permanent furniture. The high ceilings of the original volume created enough space for mezzanines under the inclined roof, which add a playful feature in the children’s rooms. There are a total of six bedrooms in the main villa and an independent guesthouse in the garden — celebrating the Greek habit of hospitality and communal countryside living during the summer months.
Design team: Sofia Xanthakou, Angeliki Giannisi, Nikolaos Sampaziotis, Joana Gomes
Visuals: Axon Office
Text: Kiriakos Spirou