ArcoSolium suites is located in Adamandas Milos. The project concerns the complete reconstruction and conversion of a pre-existing shell into a new hotel unit, comprised of 10 rooms, with an entrance space - lobby, restaurant and outdoor bar.
The general features of the Adamandas region and its adjacency to the port of Milos, created some special conditions for the hotel –in a rather densely built and aesthetically anonymous environment, where the provision for terms of privacy and comfort were not obvious, but of varying qualities and fluctuations. The design positioned itself to these terms, in aim of:
- redefining the relation of the building to its surroundings.
- transforming a rather dull pre-existing structure, into a form equivalent to the scale of the place.
- rendering a space with distinctive aesthetic character, through the combination of local textures, materials and style –leading to the creation of an environment which would have the feel of privacy and familiar personal space.
In order for the pre-existing structure to be converted to a hotel, a complete reorganizing of its layout was necessary. The pre-existing interior was fully dismantled and some parts of space were altogether cancelled, to create the space for the new outdoor bar.
The rooms were organized in two floors (ground and first floor). Their design utilizes simple forms and geometries, textures and materials in a minimalistic approach, that aims for a lasting and aesthetically distinct character, with an unpretentious feel of comfort and privacy, in direct contact with the Cycladic idiom. The interior spaces of the rooms were divided in the bare minimum, mostly through the use of see through structures and materials, as well as with mild differentiation in the floor levels. Thus intensifying the sense of spaciousness, utilizing a small scale version of the Cycladic architectural landscape –with its multiple levels, the fluid yet distinct forms, its multiple fluctuations in texture, light and shadow backdropped in a palette of pure white. Each room has its own yard, protected with lightweight wooden roofing, allowing for cool and shaded spaces.
Various wooden structures were designed in the outer shell of the building, made from chestnut wood and wicker. Creating in that sense, spaces shielded from the strong summer sun, while redefining the building under an alternating pattern of light and shadow. The yards of the ground floor rooms, were shaped through a strip of whitewashed stone walls, in top of which, a comb-like filter is created, from vertically placed, wicker branches. This semi-permeable -to the passing gaze- structure, protects – defines and adjusts the relationship between the private boundary of the rooms and the public border of the road, while also shading the façade from the western sun. Thus a 'horizontal strip' is created, that unifies the base of the building while accounting for its public identity, and over which the division of the building into smaller parts, begins. The façades of the building were redesigned, and specific openings were created, wherever that was deemed necessary, to expand the borders between indoor and outdoor space.
- Mosaic Studio_Design Team: Giannis Angelakos, Xristos Mandralis, Sofia Giotaki
- Collaborators: Argiro Nakou, Loukas Freris, Kalliopi Grammatikopoulou
- Photographer: Antonis Eleftherakis
- Stylist: Rena Gantzaki
- Time of study – construction and completion: September 2018 – July 2019
- Cost: 600,000€
- Contractor: Pitelis Technical company, LP installations
- Collaborators: Argyro Nakou, Loukas Freris, Kalliopi Grammatikopoulou, Rena Gantzaki
Hotel Equipment Suppliers:
Fabrics: Sarlas
Furniture: Veranda, Woodwell, Fiori
Lights: Kostis Lighting
Wood paneling: Caneplex
Beds: HallDesign
Tiles - sanitary ware: Manetas
Mirrors - glass partitions: Nafpliotis glass
Wooden frames: G&G Frames Gialeli