The Canaves Oia Epitome, a new form of luxury, opened in Santorini, Greece. Situated in the picturesque fishing town of Ammodi, the property is inspired by traditional Cycladic architecture (an early Bronze Age culture on the Aegean Islands), combining natural and earthy materials with modern design and style. It is the only property on the island that offers privacy from 24 luxury villas with views of the sea and sunset.

K-Studio first task was to find a way to work with the imposing concrete and brick structure that already existed on the site, without affecting the overall built area. The planned hotel was relatively big for the island, with 24 rooms arranged, along with a restaurant and reception, in 3 linear blocks that together created a U-shaped plan. The massing felt awkwardly big and disconnected to the landscape. So K-Studio began breaking it up into several smaller parts and then redistributing them around the site, allowing them space to breathe within their surroundings.

This approach totally re-set the design of the rooms and the arrangement of the program across the site. K-Studio moved the entrance from the bottom of the site to the top by swapping it with the dining room. This gave hotl a more generous reception area and gave the dining room and bar a more sociable poolside location. K-Studio added a second restaurant, accessible to non-residents via a separate entrance, beneath an extensive pergola overlooking the pool terrace and with stunning sunset views.  

K-Studio made a series of local stone-clad additions to each room to extend the sense of space and blend the boundary between indoor and outdoor living. Each room has its own entrance courtyard featuring an outdoor shower and de-sanding zone and at the other end of the room a stone box shades an external dining room and frames the view to the private pool with large arched openings. Stone ribbon walls wrap the terraces to give privacy, shade and shelter from the wind and direct each unique viewpoint to the sea beyond. These additions along with the split-level arrangement of the 4-bedrooms means that the room becomes more of a villa in experience, very well suited to family holiday life.

K-Studio palette is dominated by the extensive use of heavy, black local Santorinian stone. The stone-clad structures blend with the rock of the surrounding landscape, rooting the hotel in its environment. This sense of context is elaborated on with the addition of ancient olive trees and large, strategically placed rocks throughout the hotel in a landscaping concept designed to minimize the visible footprint of the original concrete structures.The hotel is a subtle blend of local textures and traditions, with a laid-back generosity, comfort and sense of private, personal space rare and valuable within its very special location.