The Athens-based AMK Architecture and Design office signs an original cave suite typology, which places “less is more” in a modern context of sustainability, without discounting the user’s daily experience.
Guided by the water element
A creative complex challenges the occupant of RHOES SUITE to live a different experience. The summer laziness feeling, water reflections and harmonious soundscape of the Greek summer meet functionality on a human scale, in the context of the needs of today’s VIP traveler.
The experience begins the moment the guest approaches the suite, passing by the pool. The transparency of the frames and the split-tilt central element with blinds, define the space without dividing it, while offering a unique opening to the landscape. An image that one enjoys, even from the end of the suite.
Having eliminated the intermediate semi-outdoor spaces, AMK have considered the use of a daybed, which balances where the water ends and the interior space begins: it is the living room of the interior when the window is closed and replaces the courtyard when the window opens. Its functions are multidimensional. The guests can have breakfast, read a book by the water, use it as a sitting room. Its design gives the feeling of a floating platform and semiotically refers to the transition from the external rough landscape, the intense natural relief of the rocks and the roughness of the stone, to the interior sculptural cavity of the suite.
After the pool and the daybed, the built-in bed dominates the main area of the suite. A water curtain separates the bedroom from the jacuzzi. Like a flowing indoor sculpture, the water curtain offers privacy, creates a relaxed play of reflections, and introduces the sound and reverberation of running water, influencing the way the user perceives the space. The water curtain can be adjusted in different modes according to the needs of the guests.
A skylight bathes the bathroom with natural light, orchestrating the tensions in the space. It interacts with the water, transforming the image as the day progresses. It defines the space, reveals, highlights volumes, textures, creates depth and perspective, gives direction.
Natural materials such as stone and wood, earthy colors, give the space a unique plasticity.
In RHOES suite, the best management of space and functions advocates the classic logic of Greek rural architecture, which saves resources in every way. The overflow pool and the recycled water of the water curtain sparingly use the water that, in many parts of Greece, is lacking. The contemporary design for tourism, the starting point of the new interpretation of classical and therefore wise Greek design, achieves both sustainability and atmospheric design. And these are the new ethics in the design of hospitality projects, in line with the imperatives of the time and the heritage that made Greece stand out as a tourism brand.
