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How Do We Pray in the Rain?Engraved Chapel, Peloponnese (2026) Engraved Chapel is a study for a small space of prayer an...
30/09/2026

How Do We Pray in the Rain?

Engraved Chapel, Peloponnese (2026)

Engraved Chapel is a study for a small space of prayer and contemplation within a dense pine forest in the Peloponnese. The project is situated on a steep rocky slope and forms a minimal architectural intervention in direct relation to the ground, the rain, the shade, the wind, and the humidity of the forest.

The proposal is organized through five stone walls, arranged in a spiral configuration. These walls enclose a sequence of descending steps and define the movement from the upper level of the slope toward the lower space of prayer. The inclination of the ground becomes an architectural structure: it generates a perimeter stone boundary that surrounds the descending body and gradually limits the direct visual connection with the landscape. Prayer is thus placed within a condition of concentration, where movement, pause, and descent form a single spatial experience.

The project remains open to the sky. The first protection from sun and rain is provided by the pine forest itself, which acts as a natural filter of light, shade, and humidity. Within this condition, rain acquires a structural presence. It follows the inclination of the ground, moves across the stone, and becomes visible through the drainage channels at the edges of the steps. Water runoff is both part of the constructive logic of the project and an element of its bodily perception.

Over time, the weathered steel will leave marks on the stone walls, recording the path of water. The chapel will slowly change through its exposure to the weather, carrying the traces of rain as part of its materiality and of the memory of the place.

At the end of the descent, a narrow cut passes through the stone boundary that encloses the body and opens a controlled view toward the sea. Through this minimal opening, water reappears as horizon: as a point of orientation for the body and as a connection between prayer and the wider world.

CARVING THEROSA Landscape Retreat by Slow Winds“ἔνθα Μοῦσαι / θάμ’ ἵστανται καὶ χοροὶ σὺν ἀντιχόροις Νυμφῶν”Here the Mus...
03/09/2026

CARVING THEROS
A Landscape Retreat by Slow Winds

“ἔνθα Μοῦσαι / θάμ’ ἵστανται καὶ χοροὶ σὺν ἀντιχόροις Νυμφῶν”
Here the Muses made their dwelling, here they danced on soft grass beside the deep flowing river.

Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

What defines a Mediterranean resort today?

Is it proximity to the sea, the repetition and scale of the typical room, the quality of its amenities, the layering of privacy, or the visual language of luxury?

These questions formed the beginning of our research for Carving Theros, a proposal for a 10,000 sqm seafront site in Lahania, Rhodes.

Our investigation gradually shifted from the hotel room as the basic unit of hospitality toward a broader understanding of the resort as a landscape for rest, balance and reconnection.

The proposal is organized through two distinct landscape conditions.

A continuous stepped plinth is carved into the terrain, concentrating within it the collective infrastructure and amenities of a five star resort. Reception, dining, wellness, thermal baths, treatment spaces and places for culture and rest are embedded within the ground and organized along a planted diagonal passage descending toward the sea.

Above this inhabited ground, the resort becomes landscape.

A sequence of large private gardens unfolds across the stepped terrain. Each garden is conceived as an autonomous piece of Mediterranean nature, planted with native grasses, shrubs, aromatic species and seasonal vegetation.

Here, the conventional relationship between room and landscape is reversed.

Rather than renting a room surrounded by a garden, the guest inhabits a garden that contains a dwelling.

The garden becomes the primary spatial unit of the resort, while the villa is reduced to the essential structure required to inhabit it. Each plot offers its own terrain, vegetation, shade, water and framed relationship with the horizon.

ALONI LONGHOUSEA Cultural Center in Mani“The quieter we become, the more we hear.”Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young...
07/07/2026

ALONI LONGHOUSE
A Cultural Center in Mani
“The quieter we become, the more we hear.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, 1903
In Neochori, a mountain village in Mani, a family invited us to rethink a plot at the edge of the settlement. The site contained a preserved stone house, a traditional aloni, and a garden opening between the dense village fabric and the wider landscape. What began as a private commission gradually became a broader question: how can architecture support everyday rural life beyond the intensity of summer?
Through our conversations, the family described a changing village. New residents were arriving, yet shared spaces for year-round communal life remained limited. In winter, social life becomes quieter and more fragmented. At the same time, tourism and rising property values have made affordable housing increasingly difficult. The project therefore responds to these intertwined conditions: seasonal activity and winter dormancy, private inhabitation and collective continuity.
Together, we developed a programme combining a cultural and community centre, a small kafeneio and gastronomy space, workshops, affordable housing units, and two guest houses for artistic and research residencies. The aim was to preserve the openness of the plot and maintain the visual relationship between the stone house and the aloni.
Along the eastern boundary, a new linear building connects the house with the aloni. It forms a quiet edge to the garden and contains the main communal spaces. A pitched timber roof creates a continuous interior volume, while skylights bring light and ventilation into the plan. Two atriums mark the entrances and divide the building into three zones: the community centre, the coffee and gastronomy hub, and the workshop area.
The landscape extends the architectural idea. Local gravel covers the ground, an olive grove organizes the space, and stone podiums offer places for local artworks.
Built with Mani stone, timber, terracotta, and stainless-steel details, the Aloni Longhouse is conceived as a discreet framework for gathering, learning, and exchange, allowing communal life to continue quietly throughout the year.

VECTOR DWELLINGResidence in Peloponnese“I dwell in Possibility [...]A fairer House than Prose –”Emily Dickinson, “I dwel...
17/06/2026

VECTOR DWELLING
Residence in Peloponnese

“I dwell in Possibility [...]
A fairer House than Prose –”

Emily Dickinson, “I dwell in Possibility –” (F466/J657), ca. 1862

The residence is situated within an olive grove, on a sloping plot overlooking the bay and castle of Methoni. The site is elongated and gently curved, with its southern edge oriented toward the historic settlement, while its northern boundary meets a small, densely vegetated ravine.

A main challenge of the project arises from the possibility of future construction on the adjacent plots, which may affect the views and spatial experience of the residence. The design therefore explores the idea of a vector house: a linear dwelling that directs its openings toward the two narrow sides of the site, where the views are expected to remain unobstructed.

The proposal is developed through three primary architectural gestures:

1. Two substantial stone walls rise from the ground and define the main spatial structure. Their subtle shifts frame the distant view to the south and the immediate landscape to the north.
2. Between these walls, a plinth negotiates the slope of the terrain and establishes the platform for interior and exterior life.
3. Above, a light elongated roof slab is placed perpendicularly to the plinth. It rests on the two walls, folds, and lifts to shape the living spaces and form a protected courtyard.

Through these gestures, the house becomes an architectural vector. The common spaces occupy the southern end, facing the bay, the castle, and the historic settlement of Methoni. The private rooms are placed toward the north, oriented toward the ravine and its vegetation.

The courtyard operates as a threshold between the two zones, organizing entrance, movement, light, ventilation, and privacy. The stone walls incorporate secondary and storage functions, while the roof extends outward to create shaded semi-outdoor spaces.

Perhaps Emily Dickinson’s words offer a quiet way to approach this house: habitation as an open possibility, shaped by ground, light, views, and a continuous relationship with the landscape.

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