The Architecture

Guiding Attitudes

Christos viewed our land as a potential laboratory. As an architect and an academic, teaching Architectural Design and Systems of Visual Order, he saw the search for shelter as an opportunity to put into practice ideas about form and proportion; scale and visual illusion; unity and diversity; structure and construction. The process of research and design, of experimentation and discovery assumed significance equal to, if not greater than, the finished product.

Among the features that distinguish architecture from the other arts is the incorporation of function. In the case of the Kythnos shelter, functional needs became points of departure for pushing the envelope of design to the limits of our abilities as builders.

From the beginning, we had decided to do as much of the work as possible with our own hands. Local craftsmen were employed for specialized labor or the toughest physical work. Friends and students contributed valuable effort, motivated to volunteer by the surreal insanity of the project.

Our endeavors over the years can be summarized under three broad headings:

• establishment of cultural connections

• construction of a sustainable environment

• innovative uses of concrete

The resulting aggregate is a compound which we call Mikro Horio (Little Village). This name was first uttered by an island friend, and we adopted it immediately, feeling it captures the essence of our efforts.

• Conceptual Design

• GBB I

• GBB II

• GBB III

• GBB IV

• Mikro Horio

• Art and Ornament