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Project Name: Garden City

Location: Messinia Greece

Date Completed: 2019

Interior Designer: Helen Brasinika

Architect: Helen Brasinika & Associates

Hotel Group/Developer: DNCK

Construction Company: Dimopoulos ATE

Photographer: Louisa Nikolaidou Photography

Garden City, nested in Messinian Kalamata, is the adaptation of a typical residential block of flats into a boutique hotel offering 25 different suites. Apart from the standard boutique hotel room facilities, the 25 suites offer different colour moods according to emotions and theme associations. Flamingo, Mountain View, Olive Tree, Spring Blossom, Sky Nest, Grapevine and Sea Breeze are the seven floor room typologies ranging from 13 to 27 sq meters.

Considering the emphasis travellers place on their emotional and physical wellbeing, an important feature of the hotel is ‘Oenothera SPA’. Primrose was supposed to act as an elixir in Ancient Greece, being said to tame wild animals, hence the name ‘oinos – wine’ and ‘thera – wild animal’. The SPA area offers the mind and body a meditative and zen environment offering spiritual engagement, herbal oil treatments and pampering along with the ‘Lime Gym’ to empower active physical activity. The important feature is the ‘wet self service area’ clad in black basaltic quartz to evoke the midnight blue of the Mediterranean sky. It offers a Scandinavian sauna, colour therapy shower, a relaxing lounge area and a minimalistic steam bath in a midnight blue lava plaster surrounding. The Corian platform was designed to allow the user to enjoy the steam bath lying or in a more relaxed body posture, while the semi-spherical ceiling alcove imitates the sky dome with the application of RGB fibre optics and an Italian ceiling faucet.

The room furniture was specially designed and manufactured using thermo-formed Italian Surfaces to evoke the dominant materiality and colour of each room’s concept. The rooms combine an industrial feeling of open wardrobes with metal structures, with the nostalgia of rich and colourful velvet fabrics, vintage decorative objects, and Greek features. Local iron smiths, marble installers, and wooden craftsmen were hired to create the industrial look of custom designed wardrobes, the marble flooring and custom furniture designs. While advanced CNC technology was applied for the Italian thermoforming of CLEAF surfaces and custom furniture design exclusively for each suite by Bllend.