GBB II was designed as the family quarters. It is sited with its principal door across from the southwest door of GBB I, with the space between the two structures being a virtual cube. Its footprint is an octagon (the floor plan of a truncated small rhombicuboctahedron) with squares added on two sides.
It includes a study, a pantry/storage closet, with sleeping loft above a child's bedroom and a bathroom.
After witnessing the master builder Kairis (as he was called) in action as he worked on the GBB I interior, we decided to hire him for our next big project, GBB II, which was launched in the summer and fall of 1985, when we were both on sabbatical leave from our university positions. Work continued through the summer of 1986, and was completed in the summer of 1987. Invaluable to us in this project was our fisherman friend Manolas Psaras, who ferried workers and building supplies to our land on a daily basis.
With this second building, we initiated the idea of expanding by free-standing structures, which eventually led to the village-like compound of present-day Mikro Horio. We also established the principle of rooms opening directly to the outside with no internal circulation (a feature commonly encountered in village houses). The interlude of communion with nature when one moved from one room to another was an invigorating experience from the outset — an experience that has become even more invigorating now that we are often there in wintertime, sometimes in cold, rainy weather.
If minimalism is the guiding design principle in GBB I, in GBB II particularization is in evidence, especially in the size and shape of the windows, which vary to provide views, light, and ventilation as needed.
In section, there are three levels. The lowest is a storage room accessed from the entry courtyard. The main space is a 15 sq. m. sitting room (initially intended as a study), which is identical in floor plan and section. A ladder connects the sitting room to a sleeping loft just large enough to accommodate a queen-sized bed.
Visual access of a large space from a much smaller one, especially from a higher vantage point, adds to its perceived spaciousness; at the same time, the small space does not feel confining.
Another, serendipitous, visual illusion is in operation in the sleeping loft. From the head of the bed, at the far side of the loft and looking toward the opening that connects it with the sitting room below, one has the impression that the side walls are sloping toward the top, and that the floor is wider than its actual dimension. This is due to the fact that the side walls terminate, not vertically, but slanted forward at a 45-degree angle. Even though the two 45-degree edges are in fact parallel, the eye sees them as converging toward the top. This illusion is difficult to shake, even when one is aware of it.
The second bedroom of GBB II, accessed only through an exterior door, is even smaller in size. Just 7 sq. m. in area and 2 m. in height, it was designed with a yacht's sleeping quarters in mind, and we refer to it as the "tent room". The initial tiny sleeping platform for our son when he was a child has been replaced with a double bed, allowing us to accommodate two additional guests. (Mikro Horio now has sleeping space for up to nine people before we have to resort to folding cots or sleeping bags.)
In GBB II, we also incorporated our first indoor toilet — a cause for celebration at the time. Installation of a toilet prompted the installation of plumbing. A small cistern, built at a higher elevation than the two structures, received water pumped from the spring by the sea, and delivered it through pipes not only to the new toilet, but also to the kitchen in GBB I and to an outdoor shower behind the kitchen.