Villa Mandra

Villa Mandra sits above the sea near the village of Aleomandra, on the quieter side of Mykonos away from the main town and the beach clubs. From the house you look straight out to the sunset and across to the sacred island of Delos. This is still Mykonos, so the party beaches and the harbour restaurants of Mykonos Town are a short drive if you want them, but the house itself is built to be private, hidden almost entirely from the road behind a stone garden wall.

The house was designed by K-Studio, one of Greece's best-known architecture practices, for a young family who wanted somewhere for themselves, their family and friends. Rather than one large house, the architects broke it into three small volumes, two traditional whitewashed forms and a third built of stone dug from the site, arranged around a big courtyard that works as the real living room, shaded by an engineered chestnut pergola. The bedrooms sit down near the pool garden, away from the social spaces, each with its own quiet view to the sea. Everything is built from traditional materials, lime-wash, stone and wood, handled with contemporary precision. The house has won four international architecture awards, including Best Architecture Single Residence in Europe at the International Property Awards.