It is through a translated floor plan and custom-made views of each individual room that the Saint Hotel renews the myth of the hotels – and the legendary infinity pools – on the caldera of Santorini. Designed by Kapsimalis Architects in a lot where preexisting natural caves were already used for the storage of goods, the structure integrates new terraced volumes and orients the plans of each room following the altimetric curves of the hill.
The result of this interplay is a moving structure, characterized by the superimposition of cubes and external spaces giving rise to labyrinthine perspectives: a way to ennoble not only the most obvious view towards the sea, but also to the top of the slope. At the centre of the lot, instead, a large staircase becomes in the architects’ intentions the metaphor of a volcanic crack, a re-enactment of the primordial tract that forged the morphology of the island.
Despite rejecting their most vernacular version, the interiors do not deviate from the imaginary par excellence of Greece’s island houses and furnishing. In an essential background dominated by white and essential furniture, prone to minimalism, the sculpted volumes and the chromatic detachments of lamps or small furnishings offer a hint of sophistication, intercepting a contemporary language.
- Location:
- Santorini
- Program:
- Hotel
- Architects:
- Kapsimalis Architects
- Year:
- 2019