Location:
Dimitsana, Greece
Type:
Hotel
Year:
2018- 2019
Status:
Under construction
Size:
1.400 sqm
The project involved the redesign and refurbishment of the existing 1950’s building and its transformation into a Wellness Boutique Hotel, located on a hillside and at an altitude of 950 meters at the traditional village of Dimitsana in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece.
The new hotel consists of 26 rooms, 1 junior suite and 6 luxury suites, a restaurant, a bar lounge, a multi-purpose room, a spa and seminar space which has a capacity to accommodate 78 people.
Our concept evolved around two main parameters:
a. the central theme of local history – the historical role of Dimitsana and its inhabitants in the Greek revolution against the Turkish domination in 1821, and the multifaceted symbolisms of Arcadia. Our objective was to reveal this heritage in a way to manifest itself through the making and the utilisation of the new hotel’s different elements and
b. our reinterpretation of what a “wellness space” should stand for.
For the first purpose, elements from the local folklore art and crafts tradition, such as the “Kaplan”, a rectangular woven textile with geometric patterns and fringes, were used as inspiration for the choice of fabrics and materials.
During the design of the hotel’s communal spaces, emphasis was also given to the area’s pre-industrial heritage and to the existence of the “bar mills” where the impure nitro, used during the Revolution of 1821 to fuel the battles with the necessary war material, was produced.
Our second aim was achieved through the design of a hotel that would embody the Danish philosophy, encompassed in the Danish word Hygge.
Hygge describes the “feeling of a qualitative moment of relaxation and comfort that creates satisfaction, completeness and well-being of mind and body”.