Akri House by K Studio

Location: Milos, Greece
Status: Completed 2016
Area (m2): 180sqm
K-Studio Design Team: Dimitris Karampatakis, Giorgos Mitrogiorgis
Surveyor: Jane Kysitsi
Structural Engineer: Chryssanthos Kalligeros
Mechanical Engineer: Andreas Psaroudakis
Main Contactor: Giorgos Papagioannopoulos – Urban Systems
Metalworks: Hionas
Wood works: Panagiotis Roumpoulas + Giotas for the timber ceiling
Window/Door Frames: Tsigas
Floorings: Papanastasiou
Custom Furniture: Panagiotis Roumpoulas
Furniture: Tinekhome, Dotandbo, Coxandcox, Myran, Carl Hansen, Gervasoni, Leftliving, Handandeye, Schoolhouse Electric, House Doctor, Industville, Lampegras, Aldo Bernardi
Photographer: Vagelis Paterakis
Stylist: Anestis Michalis

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About Studio

K-STUDIO is a design practice rooted in Architecture. Our contextual approach produces unique and immersive experiences through Architecture, Interior, and Hardscape Design, allowing us to achieve a holistic sense of experience across the range of spatial qualities within every project.

This approach is applied to any scale of the project and allows us to treat larger-scale, more complex works as collections of smaller studies, creating expansive systems for design with greater clarity, definition, and attention to detail. We are a creative studio of architects and interior designers based in central Athens.

Our home is Greece, a country of incredible natural beauty and resources, where the cultural identity is founded upon being outside and making good, economic use of local skills, materials, and agriculture to provide nourishing hospitality to visitors from near or far. We create crafted architectural experiences that are informed by tradition, enriched by materiality, and inspired by contemporary life.

We do not like a waste. We make minimal interventions that use minimal resources and always prefer to work with the elements to create comfort that is naturally luxurious. Our expertise is instinctive and is applied to projects of various programs.

But over the years through academic research and practical experience, we have evolved to specialize in the design and realization of projects within the leisure industry. Enjoyment is paramount in determining the success of our designs, from private holiday homes to restaurants, bars, hotels, and resorts. But it was also the driving force behind the recently completed designs of 2 larger-scale projects: a marina on the Turkish coast, and the refurbishment of Mykonos Airport.

We work collaboratively with highly experienced and knowledgeable teams to enrich and expand our services and results. Over time we have nurtured and continue to nurture our valued relationships with companies such as WATG, Tombazis & Associate Architects, Betaplan S.A., ISV Architects, and Lambs and Lions.

We have enjoyed working with and learning from the vastly experienced and knowledgeable teams of clients such as Four Seasons and O & O in Athens, and TEMES in the Peloponnese. We have also been invited to bring our contextual approach to international projects in destinations as varied as Israel, Qatar, Panama, and Kuala Lumpur.

Wherever we go our ethos remains the same: to build strong identities and architectural narratives that use the local context in balance with contemporary aspirations to elevate and enrich the user’s enjoyment.

Perched on the cliff edge in Plaka, the main town on the Greek island of Milos, this 19th-century house has been carefully restored to provide a London-based family with an authentically traditional yet practical summer retreat. Originally built in 1813, the house is effectively a 200-year-old stone organism. Unlike more recent building styles, it is not made up of separate elements, almost every part has been constructed in stone.

We were keen to respect this organism, leaving the 60cm thick walls untouched and performing a very precise and deliberate surgery on the building with minimal intervention. We removed more recent structural additions to revive the original intention of the design and all new elements have been constructed with traditional techniques using locally sourced materials.

Restricted access due to the narrow streets within Plaka meant that these materials had to be carried by hand from the nearest road up through the village to the house. Originally the house was divided into 2 zones; the ground floor as the main living and entertaining space and the basement, dug out of the mountain rock, as storage and utility space.

We wanted to preserve the contrasting characters of the 2 floors whilst re-distributing their programmatic use. The cave-like lower level has become a quietly calming guest suite, separated and private yet just a few steps down from the main house. The walls are roughly finished, following the natural surface of the stone, the floor is laid with organically arranged slate stones and natural light is low due to the small openings and reduced ceiling height.

The lofty, light-filled upper level has the main living areas within it, adjusted to suit modern family life. The entrance courtyard has been transformed with the removal of a 1990s concrete slab ceiling and its replacement with an elegant bamboo pergola. We have added a shower, a sink, and a hanging for beach towels so that the space is now used as a post-beach ‘de-sanding zone’ before entering the main house.

Inside simple, raw finishes provide cooling respite. Slate and timber flooring and unpainted walls allow the house to breathe and bespoke crafted furniture and fittings respect the local style whilst incorporating state-of-the-art appliances and technology. This is particularly true of the kitchen, originally within a smaller room elsewhere it is now a large, professionally equipped yet traditionally designed space for everyday use as well as extended family gatherings.

A new mezzanine in the children’s bedroom frees up useful play space and provides the opportunity for an en-suite bathroom and wardrobe whilst in the living room a new fireplace creates a focal point and helps transform the house into a welcoming, family home.