Monolithoi

Next-Generation Fortresses

A pair of stone houses awarded an Architizer A+ award and published in Phaidon’s The World’s Best Architecture, these two villas designed by Desypri and Misiaris Architecture are each built around an exposed rock tower. They stand as a bold reinterpretation of the traditional observatories of Mani—an austere, stone-studded Greek peninsula known for its rugged landscape and its iconic watchtowers.

Inspired by Mani’s characteristic Ksemonia, the isolated stone towers crafted from abundant local stones, this stunning pair of contemporary villas reinterprets the region’s iconic observation posts. Twin towers form the heart of this stunning modern fortress-turned-residential compound, the massive two-story cubes no longer looking like lonely sentinels. Instead, the newly constructed monoliths carve a new identity as angular, residential wings in which stone walls are offset by rich woods, and flanked courtyards are softened by swimming pools. Poured concrete completes the complex’s powerful architecture, and interiors continue the focus on the angular and austere. Most of the clean-lined, imposing furnishings were custom designed by Interior Design Laboratorium to be timelessly luxurious, strong and simple.

AROUND

Mani is an austere Peloponnese peninsula, a land of rugged outcroppings, geometric volumes, coarse textures and pastel earth tones. The architects aimed to acknowledge Mani’s traditional stony landscape and iconic towers, creating massive stone residences that mimic the mountains, cliffs and deep gorges of the region. Mani village is itself known for its tightly constructed, golden stone towers separated by narrow streets lined with prickly pear. The greater Mani region stretches from the Taygetus Mountains to mainland Europe’s southernmost point, Cape Tenaro, the gate of Hades according to Greek mythology. The Laconian and Messenian Gulfs are bordered by turquoise seas, and Mani’s coastline is jagged, undulating and wildly rugged. 

The region has long been home to individualists that match its landscape, and in earlier times, each Maniot family possessed its own observation tower to insure safety from pirates, invaders and local feuds. The breathtakingly bold village of Vatheia is built on a hill overlooking Cape Tenaro, a community of towers, stony ruins and traditional Maniot stronghold houses. Kardamili on the peninsula’s west coast is built along the rocky Messenian Gulf and features a 17th-century tower in addition to Byzantine churches. A major draw to the region beyond its iconic towers are the Caves of Diros, near the regional capital of Aeropolis. The caves, known as “nature’s underground cathedral,” extend for 15 kilometers underground and are covered in stalagmites and stalactites. Above ground, the community occupies a plateau surrounded by cultivated olive groves that overlooks the small port of Limeni. The ancient village of Itilo overlooks an azure bay and an ancient monastery.

LOCATION

Mani, Greece. Nearest airport: Kalamata (2 hours); Athens (3 hours 45 minutes)

BEST TIME TO VISIT: April to November