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Ancient and Modern Kitma House on the Greek Island of Antiparos

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The island of Antiparos in the Cyclades hosts a collection of new architect-designed luxury housing launched by OLIAROS as the Antiparos Design Properties.

One of the designs by featured young architects is Kitma House, half-buried in the hillside, by Camilo Rebelo and Susana Martins.

Like all of the dwellings designed for the island in the center of the Cycladic complex of Islands in the Aegean Sea, the luxury clientele is able to access it by private helicopter from Athens, just 80 miles away.

The white outcroppings above the zigzag facade are actually a series of skylights bringing daylight down into the earth-cooled rooms beneath them.

From below, the house suggests the traditional vernacular of a Greek fishing village on the Cycladic Islands.

Cooled top and bottom by the earth surrounding the spaces, the pair’s design needs no fans or air conditioning.

An all-marble bathroom similarly cools its deep earthburied interiors.

While from below, the facade suggests an ancient fishing village, from above, the building is a modern abstract zigzag white line that follows the topography of the hillside.

Vegetation on these originally volcanic islands is limited and surrounding fisheries provided nearly all the income from the most ancient time.

With the advent of the architecture design competition, now Antiparos is becoming a mecca of another sort, as a luxury tourism destination.