Kalesma Mykonos

It reads as a village more than a hotel. Kalesma stands on a ridge on the south-west of Mykonos, above the bay at Ornos, a run of whitewashed volumes broken down small so that from a distance they pass for the old settlements that cover the island. Twenty-five suites and two larger villas step along the spine of the hill, each with its own pool terrace and a clear line to the sea.

The design

The Athens practice K-Studio drew the architecture and Studio Bonarchi did the interiors, and the two worked to the same idea: the Cyclades stated plainly. Rounded whitewashed blocks, thick walls, local stone, unbleached linen and pale timber, arranged around a central plateia, the village square, so the hotel has a middle to gather in. An old stone aloni, the round threshing floor once used to grind wheat, has been kept and turned into a platform for the sunset. Little on the site fights the arid, rocky ground it sits on.

The setting

The ridge was chosen for its reach. From the spine of the hill the light runs both ways, sunrise on one side and sunset on the other, with the Aegean below and, on a clear evening, the other islands laid out on the water. Ornos and its beach are a short way down the slope; the town and the old port are a drive across the island.

Why it's in VANE

Mykonos has more hotels than it needs and few that feel of the island rather than dropped onto it. This one is small, built by Greek hands to a clear idea, and it treats Cycladic building as a living language rather than a set of clichés. It opened in 2021 and settled quickly among the island's serious addresses. It earns the ridge.

VANE Folio

A longer reading of Kalesma: the village on the ridge, the rooms with their own pools, Pere Ubu and the sunset at the aloni.