The Canaves resort brand is well established and extremely successful on the island of Santorini. When they approached us to design a new hotel we immediately understood the unique opportunity they had in their site, which had spectacular views of the famous sunset, without the spatial restrictions of the often cramped sites within the Caldera. The Canaves Oia Epitome is the first hotel in this part of the island to offer open, light-filled space with unrestricted views.
Our first task was to find a way to work with the imposing concrete and brick structure that already existed on the site, without affecting the overall built area. The planned hotel was relatively big for the island, with 24 rooms arranged, along with a restaurant and reception, in 3 linear blocks that together created a U-shaped plan. The massing felt awkwardly big and disconnected to the landscape. So we began breaking it up into several smaller parts and then redistributing them around the site, allowing them space to breathe within their surroundings.
Our brief was to design a small boutique hotel on a dramatic site on the edge of the volcano of Santorini. The client, a native of the island, had a vision and determination that drove the project from beginning to end, and gave us the opportunity to push the concept and its realisation to the very edge, in all senses. The result is a truly unique and dramatic design that celebrates the inherent energy of our client, the architectural traditions of the island, and the intensity of the hotel’s crater-edge location.
After a successful collaboration for Andronikos hotel in Mykonos, KLab architecture and Andronikos hotels joined forces again for a new hotel in Santorini. A large house from the 70’s, located in Imerovigli Santorini, of three floors was rethought as 6 suites hotel. Above the volcano caldera and the famous rock “skaros” KLab architecture changed throughout the existing building to accommodate the needs of the new hotel. 6 large suites and a sky bar on the terrace were conceived as a modern interpretation of the cave like vernacular houses of Santorini. New vaults and arches and curvaceous edges recreate the unique aura of traditional houses.
This 20-room hotel (a joint project between Divercity and Mplusm) is carved into the cliff-face 300m above Santorini’s volcanic caldera. The understated design allows this extraordinary landscape to take centre stage. The hotel provides a contemporary interpretation of vernacular architecture: economy of space, radical simplicity, and organic forms.
Daphne is a site-specific installation situated within the tunneled stairway that interplays with the notion of concealing and revealing the ancient interior surfaces of the tunnel leading to the peak of Pyrgos. Made entirely of self-supporting paper panels, Daphne creates an enclosure that intervenes the visitors’ perception of the existing conditions as a container of conglomerated memory as the paper panels age and take their shape accordingly to the local condition. The installation is part of Santorini Biennale of Arts that will take place until September 30, 2012.
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