Escape route: React Architects align architecture and environment in Paros
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

On the island of Paros React Architects have embedded a low-lying house complex with a stone exterior wall into a curved site that slopes down towards the sea. Mindful to preserve the natural beauty of the house’s location in the Agios Ioannis Detis area, a protected stretch of rocky landscape that meets the serene Naoussa Bay, Natasha Deliyianni and Yiorgos Spiridonos, directors of React architects, wanted to leave the smallest possible footprint on the horizon.
The project on the 11,000 sq m site is made up of two houses with white plaster walls, a shared courtyard and swimming pool, all of which is surrounded by a stone exterior wall – enveloping and protecting the inhabited space in what the architects describe as a ‘hug’. The architectural grouping of forms follows the traditional ‘katoikiés’ style of Cycladic architecture, which can also be seen in the plans of monasteries on Paros featuring a church at the centre and satellite buildings all surrounded by an enclosing exterior wall.
Hug House designed by Athens-based React Architects is landscaped to the terrain of the land in a protected area of natural beauty
Sensitive to the gradual incline of the land, the complex is settled into the natural topography and only the tops of the exterior walls are visible to passersby. The architects chose a stone that was visually similar in colour to the surrounding terrain, and this border is designed so the white walls of the houses can only be seen from the courtyard.
The architecture also works to bring privacy to the relatively exposed site – entry to the house complex is from the highest point of the site, where a pathway descends between two buttressing walls into the heart of the courtyard.
The position of the house in relation to the land, also means that the inhabitants are protected from the strong winds from the north, just another instance of how the React Architects have constructively challenged the symbiotic relationship between the architecture and the environment.
Hug House is named after its exterior stone walls, which wrap the housing complex of two houses, a courtyard and a swimming pool in a protective hug
The house is located in the Agios Ioannis Detis area in Paros, a protected stretch of rocky landscape that meets the serene Naoussa Bay in the north west of the island
The swimming pool is positioned between the two single-storey houses
Entry to the site is from the highest point, where a pathway descends to the courtyard between two stone walls
The surrounding stone wall allows the house to be less visible from the exterior, yet also brings privacy to the interior spaces and courtyard, also protecting it from the strong north winds
A few square apertures in the exterior wall open up the complex to framed views of the landscape
The house is designed to make as little impact on the landscape as possible
The design of the complex follows the traditional katoikiés style of Cycladic architecture, which can also be seen in the plans of monasteries on Paros
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the React Architects website (opens in new tab)
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
The best London art exhibitions: a guide for March 2023
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, and those around the UK in March 2023, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Harriet Lloyd Smith • Published
-
Craig Green on his ‘decorated men’ and those hand-moulded leather accessories
‘They are almost like a relic,’ says British designer Craig Green of the hand-moulded leather objects that appeared as part of his S/S 2023 collection, a musing on functionality and decoration
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Wadi AlFann, AlUla’s new land art destination, is stirring creativity in the desert
Wadi AlFann – Saudi Arabia’s Valley of the Arts – hints at the scale of its ambition with an event in the desert for curators, artists and cultural leaders ahead of the completion of its site and first five artworks
By Simon Mills • Published
-
The Social Athens makes waves in the Greek capital
The Social Athens by OOAK architects opens, featuring a distinctive wavy façade and an interior that balances social life and seclusion
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Athens in 2023: architecture and creativity are on the up
Athens is enjoying its very own metamorphosis with a plethora of recently restored buildings, large-scale projects and fresh new openings
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Year in review: top 10 houses of 2022, selected by Wallpaper* architecture editor Ellie Stathaki
Wallpaper’s Ellie Stathaki reveals her top 10 houses of 2022 – from modernist reinventions to urban extensions and idyllic retreats
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Peninsula House is a timeless piece of Greek island architecture
Peninsula House, Atelier Bow-Wow’s latest collaboration with developer Oliaros, is a free-flowing, art-filled holiday home on the Greek island of Antiparos
By Ellie Stathaki • Last updated
-
Roz Barr’s terrace house extension is a minimalist reimagining
Terrace house extension by Roz Barr Architects transforms Victorian London home through pared-down elegance
By Nick Compton • Published
-
Tree View House blends warm modernism and nature
North London's Tree View House by Neil Dusheiko Architects draws on Delhi and California living
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Maison de Verre: a dramatic glass house in France by Studio Odile Decq
Maison de Verre in Carantec is a glass box with a difference, housing a calming interior with a science fiction edge
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Modernist Coromandel farmhouse refreshed by Frankie Pappas, Mayat Hart and Thomashoff+Partner
An iconic Coromandel farmhouse is being reimagined by the South African architectural collaborative of Frankie Pappas, Mayat Hart and Thomashoff+Partner
By Nick Compton • Last updated