1864 THE SEA CAPTAIN'S HOUSE / 'CAVE SUITE' IN SANTORINI / PATSIOS ARCHITECTURE & CONSTRUCTION / PHOTOGRAPHY BY VANGELIS PATERAKIS

The design and reconstruction of the Cave Suite is a part of the extended renovation and restoration of the boutique hotel “1864 The Sea Captain’s House” at Oia village in the island of Santorini. “1864 The Sea Captain’s House” is sheltered in one of the largest and most luxurious, traditional Captain Houses (kapetanospita) of old Oia having tremendous view of Caldera and the volcano islands.

 

The interior design aims to create a sense of comfort and relaxation as well as a subtle feeling of luxury giving out hints of the recognizable elegant style of the rest hotel’s suite. Work has been done, so that this new space brings out the simplicity and clarity of local architectural characteristics, while integrating contemporary elements of design, based on the same two principles. Simplicity and clarity.

 

White is chosen as the single and dominant color, allowing the greatest possible diffusion of physical light, while bringing out the distinctive traditional morphology and shapes of the cave house shell. White plaster of the interior shell, built-in furniture, white deck flooring and cement screed, all work together to form a minimal and abstractive entirety. Artificial lighting is designed as integrated as possible to the building elements, complementing the lack of natural light due to the cave-house structure. Additional furniture and objects of design were chosen quite carefully. Some of those are two old wooden chests used as coffee and TV table, some black metal chairs that refer to the hotels antique metal furniture, handmade metal lights and some pottery created by the Greek artist, Vavatsis George. All these add intensity, detail and contradictions to the existing white background while also serve as a reference to the old traditional interior of the Captain Houses.