Mediterranean Family Resort
A family resort measured in shade, courtyards and repetition — warm and durable, built for children and grandparents on the same afternoon.
§03 · 34.7°N 33.0°E · Greek & Cypriot coast
Masterplan.
§02 — a village, not a hotelThe plan reads as a village rather than a hotel — low buildings set along a shaded spine that runs from the arrival court to the beach.
Buildings are low, two and three storeys. The spine is the organising idea. Everything a family needs sits within a short, covered walk of it, so a child on a bicycle and a grandparent on foot travel the same route without conflict.
Zoning is legible before it is signposted. Arrival and back-of-house occupy the inland edge, away from the water and the noise. The active zone — pools, play, family dining — gathers in the middle, where supervision lines are naturally short. The quiet zone — accommodation courtyards, spa, framed views of the water — sits closest to the shore. A family crosses from calm to active and back again along a single measured route, and the resort tells them where they are without a sign.
Landscape does the softening. Courtyards are planted, not paved. Circulation is shaded by pergola, canopy and building mass rather than by mechanical cooling, so the outdoor rooms stay usable through the middle of the day. The car is kept at the perimeter; the interior is walked.
Architecture.
§03 — ARCH · warm and durableThe register is warm and durable, not delicate — a building that will be used hard by families for decades, detailed for that life.
Surfaces are mineral and forgiving — lime render, local stone, timber that greys honestly. Colour is restrained and taken from the ground rather than applied to it.
The courtyard is the repeating unit. Accommodation gathers around planted courts, each one a sheltered outdoor room with its own scale and its own framed view. The courts give small children a bounded world and give adults a sightline across it. Circulation between them is shaded — deep loggias, pergolas, thick walls that hold the cool of the night into the afternoon. Openings are proportioned for cross-ventilation and for the low, framed view rather than the panoramic gesture.
Family use sets the plan. Rooms connect and combine; a suite can grow a room for a grandparent or shed one when the children leave. Thresholds are generous enough for a pushchair and a wet towel. The considered move here is not a flourish but a plan that absorbs real family life without strain — durable finishes, clear supervision lines, shade where people actually stand.
Structure, systems and model.
§04 — STR · MEP · BIMStructural strategy
A regular, repetitive grid runs through the accommodation blocks, sized to a single efficient bay that suits both concrete flat slabs and, where spans open up, a lightweight steel superstructure. One bay, detailed once, poured or fabricated many times — predictable formwork cycles, predictable cost.
Long spans in steel
Common areas — dining, arrival, the pool pavilion — ask for longer spans and lighter roofs. The study proposes steel, detailed in Tekla for prefabrication and rapid erection, so wide shaded rooms arrive as calibrated components, and the disruptive phase of coastal construction is shortened.
Corrosion-aware detailing
The coast dictates the detailing. Protected reinforcement, appropriate cover and concrete class, isolated and coated steel, marine-grade fixings, and drainage detailed so water never sits against structure. Seismic and wind actions are resolved in the primary frame from the outset.
Passive comfort first
Shade, mass, orientation and cross-ventilation carry the building through the hottest hours, so mechanical cooling supports the architecture rather than compensating for it. That lowers installed capacity, running cost and carbon in one move.
Water & sustainability
Potable supply, on-site treatment, and — where mains cannot meet demand — desalination and STP coordination are planned into the masterplan, not retrofitted. Greywater and treated effluent feed landscape irrigation; solar gain becomes generation on the low roofs; an EIA is run with coastal and marine specialists.
Federated BIM model
Architecture, structure and MEP are federated in BIM and exchanged as IFC, so clashes are resolved on screen before they are poured in concrete. The repetitive grid makes the model efficient — bays, cores and courtyards are components, adjusted once and propagated everywhere.
Documentation is construction-oriented, which is the studio's habit from real public and industrial work. Steel is developed to fabrication level in Tekla; concrete, reinforcement and services are drawn to be built, not merely illustrated. The BIM model carries the project from concept to construction as one continuous source of truth, and it is the vehicle through which local consultants are brought in cleanly.
Related.
§05 — where this connectsDesigning for the Mediterranean coast
How the studio approaches resort architecture and engineering on the Greek and Cypriot shore.
Open → SELECTED WORKSelected Work
Transferable proof — wellness precedent, public-building rigour, steel and Tekla detailing.
Open → STUDYAegean Cliff Retreat
The sibling Greek study — rooms cut into the slope, mineral and low, with framed views held by the rock.
Open →A concept today. A collaboration tomorrow.
Sustainability here is measured, not declared — robust materials that last, passive comfort that reduces load, water that is treated and reused, and an EIA run so the resort sits inside its context rather than on top of it.
For international projects — including the Maldives, Greece and other jurisdictions — local approvals, statutory submissions, code compliance and professional sign-off are handled together with local licensed architects, engineers, structural checkers, EIA consultants, coastal/marine specialists, fire consultants and MEP/utilities consultants. The federated model is what makes that collaboration legible: everyone works to the same coordinated geometry.