With the Curved Line and Ribbon projects, the Greek studio GNB Architects offers incredible, undulating, original and playful architectural line play in the heart of the Cyclades.
For ten years, the GNB Architects studio has been exploring materiality, rural landscapes, urban environments, vernacular and contemporary architecture on Greek soil. While the island of Mykonos is renowned for its rugged natural beauty, new structures must meet highly functional and aesthetic standards. Under the eye of this collective of designers and architects, the conceptual Curved Line project is the result of these perceptions. The residence, made of concrete and rough white plaster typical of Mykonian architecture, is situated on a sloping site with a pre-existing framework. This underground construction is set behind an undulating wall overlooking the settlement of Ornos and the Aegean Sea. With its curved shape, this wall creates cove-like living spaces for total privacy, all flanked by a superb infinity pool. Sunlight streams into the excavated space through geometrically shaped ducts that emerge from the pebbled ground, creating a landscape of sculptural elements.
BLENDING IN AND MOVING
The Ribbon project pushes the vision even further into the heart of the wild Cycladic landscape, combined with the strange geometry of the plot on which this villa nestles. The entire construction, also at the concept stage, seems to rest entirely on space. Rock and wind are the only architectural elements. “These components in constant harmonious interaction unfold linearly, swirling, arguing, embracing, sinking into the earth and then re-emerging until they end up in the sea,” explains the GNB Architects design team poetically. “All this choreography takes place without the slightest imprint on the natural landscape, like a ribbon unwinding over the hill, like a snake descending to drink the water from the sea.” This project blurs the boundaries between nature and architecture. Its long, white-pigmented structure, imagined in concrete and worked rock, refers to the bare, raw site. The interiors are designed in the same way, simple and uncluttered. Here, objects become the absolute essentials, drawing on the naturalness of the space.
Grèce – Mykonos
NATHALIE DASSA
Image credits Curved Line © Duee Studio
Image credits Ribbon © Spiros Boukas