GBB

Gastromeni Beach Bungalows

Our first summer on the land, we levelled sites for tents and for a patio of sorts, over which we stretched a burlap shade. We had no electricity, no water, no anything but the sea and the sun and the pluck of youth. A friend mockingly dubbed our place "the Gastromeni Beach Bungalows." It tickled us then—and still does—so we adopted it for our first, and all subsequent, buildings, shortening the name to GBB.

A note on the orientation of the site plan: Gastromeni is divided by a central ravine. Mikro Horio is situated on the southern slope. The best vantage point for looking at the site is, therefore, up on the northern slope, and most of our photographs are taken from there—that is, shooting towards the south. Kathy argues that, for the layman, the site plan should be presented in the same orientation as most of the photographs, that is, with south being at the top. This is the opposite of standard architectural presentations, in which north is at the top, and it took strenuous discussion before Chris acquiesced to this deviation.