GUILTY BEACH - DESIGNING THE NEW GREEK BEACH CLUB BY LoT OFFICE FOR ACHITECTURE

Nestled on the world-class island destination of Mykonos, Greece, Guilty Beach is a combination champagne bar, private beach club, and gourmet restaurant designed by LoT Office for Architecture. Guilty Beach was conceived as a space imbued with the traditional hospitality-minded culture of Greece and sensual mystique of Mykonos while catering to contemporary indulgences of the pleasure-seeking. LoT’s design of the space was comprehensive, including custom furnishings, larger constructions of wood and steel framing, and spatial organization. By focusing on the themes of unyielding hospitality and service, lightness and openness, and timeless understated elegance, LoT created Guilty Beach to be both inherently contemporary and fundamentally Greek. Panormos Beach of Mykonos is one of the most beautiful coasts in the world and serves as the context for LoT’s Guilty Beach. The outdoor upscale beach club taps into the island’s rich cultural heritage and epitomizes the ideals of Greece by offering a service-oriented space without the gaudy opulence that has become common on the island. LoT’s design harkens back to Mykonos’s heyday of the 1970s, when the island’s distant location and uniqueness created an atmosphere of genuine character rather than pretentiousness. LoT stripped the beach club typology of its artificial embellishments, and in doing so, rediscovered the essential Greek spirit. Able to accommodate up to 250 people in its 1100 square meter (11000 square foot) space, Guilty Beach is comprised of main areas for poolside lounging and covered fine dining as well as free-standing structures for more specific functions. Continuity is achieved through spatial, visual, and tactile considerations, namely white furnishings with clean lines, a sleek overhead lighting system, and lightweight permeable boundaries. LoT carried this Greek sense of understated luxury into its custom designed furniture and construction details of larger built forms. Furnishings incorporate a range of textures, contrasting plush lounge beds, cool white marble tabletops, and steel mid-century sun shades against the fluid water of the central blue pool. Also reminiscent of a simple, authentic Mykonos, structures including a champagne selection room, store, DJ booth, and raised VIP platform, use steel framing and steel grid systems built up with wood.

Porous boundary conditions define soft volumes throughout the space. A perimeter wall becomes a partially transparent enclosure of thin white wood slats and clear glass and overhead, a delicate system of crossing wires with glowing spherical bulbs creates a sense of interiority. White wooden slats form soft curves surrounding free-standing structures, allowing air flow and visual transparency and, as for the champagne room, creating a unique display piece. In the open-air restaurant that flanks the lounge area, patrons dine on fresh seafood under a bamboo canopy on patios differentiated by a series of potted bamboo plants, which creates a visual filter while still allowing movement of light and sound. LoT enhanced the essential notions of Greek hospitality and relaxation while elevating the beach bar concept into an intoxicating mélange of traditional island charm, chic design, and sophisticated dining. At Guilty Beach, LoT combined the essence and traditional ideas and materials of Greek everyday to craft a cohesive, contemporary design.
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