HYDRA BEACH HOTEL

The hotel complex is situated in Hermionis, across the sea from Hydra, on the main route connecting Galata to Hermioni. This access road, which used to cross the beachfront, was eliminated and a new roadway was constructed behind the complex.

The initial brief called for fifty bungalows, a restaurant, administration offices, a reception hall, coffee shops, a bar, a workshop for children, cabins, shops, and hair dressing salons, together with a second bar on the beach, sport facilities, and an open-air nightclub.

During the construction period, twenty more bungalows were added to the complex, and these were placed East of the administration offices, employing slightly modified types of the original bungalow unit.

In 1968, the complex was extended by the addition of a hotel building (397 beds), a theatre, a nightclub, a swimming pool with Gym rooms, and storage rooms, and by the creation of a sitting area at the central piazza.

In designing the complex, which was ultimately the result of so many changes and additions, we tried to maintain the following principles and goals:

1. An effort was made to create an intimate relationship between the buildings and the idiosyncratic form of the landscape, thereby preserving, as far as possible, the intrinsic quality of the natural environment.
2. The individual units were designed in such a way as to maintain a feeling of privacy while still affording a view over the site.
3. The various buildings were freely and organically arranged on the site and the resulting non-orthogonal layout was thereby kept fairly modifiable throughout.
4. Special emphasis was given to the intermediate open-air or semi-covered spaces (nodes) connecting the various branches of the hotel. Each node assumes a different character from the next as it adapts to special circumstances, such as the relationships between the various volumes and heights, and the specific form of the natural environment.

Atelier 66: S. Antonakakis and D. Antonakakis
Collaborating architects: G. Aidonopoulos, G. Antonakakis, E. Goussi-Desylla and K. Hatzimichalis