Building Sky Villa

The story of the building of Sky Villa is an interesting one.

Hugh and Ourania had met and fallen in love 10 years previously and decided to move to the island which Ourania was connected to through her mother. They bought a beautiful piece of land which held fond childhood memories for Ourania , in order to build a family home.

In the meantime they had met and become friends with Peter and Dorothea Haupt , architects from Berlin. They were some of the first “foreigners” to arrive and fall in love with Ios during the 1970’s. They had charmingly renovated an old village house and were happy to take on the new project.

It was a difficult beginning, as the land was very steep and both architect and owner were agreed that the house should be “planted” on the existing landscape rather than disrupting the land to accommodate the house. Many hours were spent creating this solution which resulted in a dynamic and elegant structure.

Building the house was also an experience , construction methods were still very simple, small cement mixers, wheelbarrows and where necessary a bucket of concrete hefted onto the shoulder in order to reach its destination. It was an exciting summer!