Secluded and remote: this villa on the island of Antiparos in Greece is a summer dream
“We baptize this project as ‘the impossible'”, they explain Raphaël and Thomas, from the Parisian studio Le Berre Vevaud. It was not easy at all to build a house in such a remote and inaccessible area: “a road had to be created to serve it, because it didn’t even have an address.” The owner, an avid kitesurfer, fell head over heels in love with the island of Antiparos in Greece and its wild, windswept coastline. “This story started with the architects Stella & Achilleas Dimitriadi and we quickly got on board to help with the design,” they continue. The intention was to integrate the buildings into the landscape to favor a local architecture, made with materials from here. With a total of 700 m2 and seven bedrooms, this house was conceived, above all, to be welcoming to family and friends.
The colossal pergolas integrate perfectly into the environment.
© Alexis Armanet | Stylism: Sarah de Beaumont
No difference between inside and outside
That’s why, the distribution sought to emphasize the coherence between the interior and exterior spacesHence the huge sliding windows. “We wanted to create contemporary architecture in harmony with the environment. We had to let the light in and imagine it as an open holiday destination, on one level and with very fluid communication”, explain the interior designers. “Here you don’t need to be active: just admire the blue of the sky and the sea.” As a link between both elements is the infinity pool that, almost thirty meters long, seems to merge with the horizon.
Inside, except for the master bedroom, all the rooms were projected following the same lines, although each one in a different palette of materials and colors. “The objective was to create an architectural manifesto of tense lines but mixed with our style, in which rounded shapes predominate,” they say. It is a softness that counteracts the harshness of the environment. The tones match the landscape, while the furniture designed by the duo – such as the benches, stools and headboards – uses pieces purchased from the Carwan and Eleftheria Tseliou galleries, both in Athens. All the rooms –bathrooms included– also have sliding doors that open completely to the outside. Here this is a constant: the borders between inside and outside are blurred and the feeling of freedom is infinite. More and more friends want to stay in this paradise, so Le Berre Vevaud has a new mission: to build another house. On the same plot. There is already a waiting list.
