SPA RESORT

Academic project - Collaborators: 3 Xanthi (GR) October 2015 - February 2016 glass construction exists in the back side of the bangles, allowing the full opening of the house to the sea. The bangles when closed create a small balcony.

The basic purpose of the project was to design a spa hotel, in Limenas, the center village of the Greek island Thasos.

The big challenge was to take under consideration all the necessary parametrs that are the unique and pittoresce construction area, the morphology of the ground, the caratteristics of the insular life and the great amount of visitors especially during summer.

In order to sattisfy every single one, as a team we decided to reccomend an architecturalsolutioncapableofserving the big number of tourist but with a mild intervention in the landscape of the island.

For the final suggestion, the main building block of the complex followed two basic lines of the selected canvas.

The private part of the resort, meaning the hotel rooms , are concentrated in the feet of the hill - rock, creating separate, individual apartments with balconies.

The most luxurious rooms of the hotel, taking the form of a bungalow, are placed closer to the water, on floating wooden platforms.

The resort’s public areas, reception, restaurant and spa area are a self-contained building volume that floats above the water surface, thus allowing direct eye contact with the water , giving in the visitor the sense of being on a boat.

Two different types of rooms where used in order to accommodate for the high number of visitors to the island.. The standard room type and the luxury one.

The standard rooms were designed as a building complex, semi-burried in the back side of the rock. The half size retreats that were created, serve like a balcony to each room. Standard rooms are capable of accommodate 2-4 people and each one has an individual bathroom, kitchen and living room.

The room building complex consists of smaller ones, connected to each other by the outdoors staircases - corridors which lead from the parking at the top of the building to the sea.

The other room type, besides being more luxuriours, is capable to accommodate a bigger number of people. In fact, it is a private appartment with a smaller second floor.

The roof is a combination of glass and metal construction, that allows the full illumination of the area, but at the same time can protect from unwanted light with a special system of wooden shades. The same

The complex has two swimming pools, one located outdoors and the other indoors. These pools, connected to each other, creating a single flow of the water element within the architectural composition.

The construction materials chosen were stone in similar shades as the Thasos landscape, dark wood with great resistance to the adverse of the seawater conditions and glass , in order to give that feeling of open space to the countryside and contribute in achieving a closer realtionship with the sea.

Particular emphasis was given in creating hollows and voids in the volumes, this way giving the impression of a lighter building and achieving the main purpose of fitting more harmoniously in the seaside landscape of this beautiful island.

As final result, the general placement of the volumes as well as the site study, facilitate the access to the water and favor the realationship between people and nature.