Stroggilo Round Island Retreat
A round Aegean island with a protected circular court at its centre. Twelve to twenty keys arranged radially, a coastline left wild, and an interior of water, stone and shade.
STROGGILO · AEGEAN SEA
On a round island the obvious move is to build the edge; this study builds the centre instead.
Stroggilo is compact and nearly circular, and the study takes the geometry seriously. The coastline stays mostly natural: a small pier, swimming access, a few stone paths and discreet viewing decks are the only interventions at the edge. The architecture concentrates inland, where a circular agora forms a protected interior world of water, colonnades and shade. Villas follow a loose radial logic, each adapted to its own ground, no two identical, with terraces, shaded outdoor rooms, sea views and privacy walls. At twelve to twenty keys, this is the most formally iconic study in the series and the closest to a sanctuary: a place written for art, wellness and long silences, with the smallest service footprint that can support it.
| Location | Round island in the Aegean Sea, Greece |
|---|---|
| Site | Compact circular island; coastline left mostly untouched, buildings concentrated inland |
| Programme | 12–20 suites and villas, the Circular Agora, restaurant, library, small spa, yoga and meditation spaces, sea swimming platform |
| Identity | Ultra-low-density sanctuary for art, wellness and silence |
| Status & Context | Speculative Aegean study; feasibility subject to zoning, environmental limits and archaeological review where applicable |
| Stage | Self-initiated design study — architecture, structure, MEP, BIM |
The edge stays wild; the centre holds.
§03 — Masterplan strategyA natural perimeter, an interior agora, radial villas and paths that slow you down on purpose.
The plan inverts the usual island reflex. Public life gathers in the protected interior, which keeps the coastline unbuilt and the horizon clean. Villas radiate loosely from the agora, adapted to topography, each with its own terrace, water basin and privacy buffer. Stone paths connect pier, court, villas, spa and coast at walking pace. With so few keys, back-of-house stays small, compact and hidden — and is planned with the same rigour as everything else.
Natural Perimeter
The coastline remains essentially natural. A small pier, swimming access, a few stone paths and discreet viewing decks are the only permitted moves at the water's edge, and each is sized to disappear into it.
Interior Agora
The island's public life concentrates in the circular court: restaurant, lounge, library, art space, small spa and meditation court around a shallow water basin, sheltered from the wind by its own geometry.
Radial Villas
Villas radiate from the centre in a loose, topography-led pattern. Each has a terrace, a shaded outdoor room, a sea view, a privacy wall or landscape buffer and a small pool or water basin.
Silent Paths
Stone paths, shaded where possible and deliberately slow, connect pier, agora, villas, spa and coast. Movement across the island is designed as part of the retreat, at walking pace only.
Minimal Service
With twelve to twenty keys, the service footprint stays small: one hidden, well-planned zone for staff, storage, water and energy systems, sized precisely for the island's low operating load.
The Circular Agora.
§04 — The iconic pieceA protected circular courtyard of colonnades, shallow water and shade — the island's hidden centre.
The Agora is a single circular figure holding the retreat's shared rooms: restaurant, lounge, library, art space, small spa and a meditation court, arranged around a shallow water basin under a shaded colonnade. It reads as a contemporary descendant of the ancient Mediterranean gathering place, without futurist styling and without pastiche. The circle gives the island a memorable identity from the air and, at ground level, a still centre where orientation becomes effortless.
The form works before it pleases: the ring shelters the court from Aegean wind, organises circulation, clarifies orientation and creates a stable microclimate. Structurally it is modest — low-rise masonry and concrete, simple spans, thermal mass — with prefabricated internal components used wherever they shorten construction time on an island reached by boat.
Architecture, engineering, ecology.
§05 — The technical layersMediterranean monastic minimalism
Circular geometry, stone walls, courtyards and controlled views, with warm minimal interiors in lime plaster, timber, dark bronze metal, natural linen, gravel and dry planting. The architecture is composed as sanctuary first and photograph second, and the discipline shows.
Simple spans, deliberate mass
Low-rise masonry and concrete structures with short, honest spans; thermal mass carries the climate strategy and courtyard geometry provides the wind protection. A low construction footprint and minimal roads keep heavy works, and their scars, off the island.
A light hold on the ground
Passive cooling and thermal mass do the comfort work; photovoltaic and service integration, water collection and storage, and on-island wastewater treatment do the rest. Excavation, roads and construction footprint are minimised, and prefabricated internal components shorten time on site.
Geometry needs coordination
A circular building punishes improvisation. The agora's setting-out, radial villa types, paths and the service zone are developed in a single BIM model, with geometry, prefabricated components and services resolved digitally before a single boat delivery is booked.
Luxury, here, is counted in what was left out.
Stroggilo is the clearest expression of the studio's architectural identity: geometry, material, light and restraint carried by one legible diagram. A self-initiated study with no owner, broker, authority or operator behind it. Any real project on a small Aegean island would face zoning, environmental and, where applicable, archaeological review, handled with licensed Greek consultants.
If a project here became live, we would work as the technical partner alongside the licensed local consultants who carry statutory responsibility in the jurisdiction — the architect of record, structural checkers, MEP and utilities engineers, and the environmental, coastal and fire specialists the approvals require. Our role is design, structural engineering, MEP coordination, BIM and construction-oriented documentation.