Santorini Minimalist Villa
Oia, Santorini, Greece
THE DESIGN CONCEPT
Carved directly into the volcanic Caldera cliffside of Oia in Santorini, this residence represents a radical rethinking of the Cycladic vernacular. Instead of standard whitewashed plaster curves, the villa utilizes a heavy, custom-textured white board-formed concrete that matches the roughness of the surrounding pumice rock, while resisting the aggressive Cycladic climate.
Architectural Narrative
The project is split into three subterranean levels, reducing its visual footprint from the sea while maximizing thermal efficiency via geothermal cooling. A continuous, structural glass facade spans the entire western elevation, dissolving the boundary between the interior volumes and the vastness of the Aegean Sea.
The floor plan is oriented around a single monumental architectural element: a dramatic cantilevered concrete staircase that descends through a triple-height atrium, serving as a chimney for hot air to escape naturally.
Materiality & Integrity
Interiors feature custom-poured seamless white cement floors, minimal solid oak joinery, and heavy basalt stone blocks quarried during excavation, repurposed as partition walls and structural slabs.
An dramatic 20-meter infinity pool cantilevers 4 meters out over the caldera, creating an intense sensory connection with the horizon at sunset.
"The building does not stand on the cliff. It is the cliff itself, extended into high-end human habitation."
VISUAL CHRONICLES
