Two friends. Two living legends. Two very similar houses. One amazing site. Paola Navone and Manolis Pantelidakis in their Serifo.

There are two houses I’d like to present together. The houses of two very talented and important individuals in architecture, built in a very special place.
They are saying that the houses of the architects are their manifests (Frank Lloyd Wright himself built his house in Oak Park, IL in order to attract clients) . Imagine what happens when two of them are placed one next to the other.
Italian architect and designer Paola Navone and her very good friend greek scenographer Manolis Pantelidakis did as many other best friends do (I don’t know who went first, but it doesn’t matter); once you choose to visit for the vacations, next thing you remember you are already building a house next to your pal!
Rural, dry, almost gray landscape and turquoise blue sea is our background.

Mr. Pantelidakis, in his interview for Athens Voice, says that the tradition is always something alive and vibrant so we cannot forget to live in it. On the other hand there are things that one must leave behind in a house like this, the habits of the big city, the lifestyle and the technology. A house in a place like Serifos should intoxicate you from the contemporary way of living. If design can follow old techniques and natural materials, then it’s more than welcome.

You can always find a variety of objects in houses like this one; tamata (offering to the god or…. The gods) that make the wishes and the prayers flow in the aegean wind, an old fridge reclaimed by the old local super market or even an old classic American table.
Mr. Pantelidakis has chosen the typical white, the olive silver, the colors of the earth, the grays of the local stone, the blues of the sea and sky and some yellows and limes from the summer fruits.

In the same mood is of course Mrs. Navone’s house.
The designer collaborated with architect George Zafiriou in order to create a simple house, comprised of different whitewashed volumes built of stone.

The also white dominated interior focuses on the essentials and absolutely necessary, hosts some prototypes of the designer’s furniture pieces (some of them designed for Gervasoni), a bench in wood, mattresses and chests of linen.

Painted carpets on concrete floors, inspired from the Greek tradition to mark the roads with lime, express the original creativity of the owner, creating a unique decorative feature, graphic and poetic, both indoors and outdoors. The stunning but simple effect proves that style is anything but a matter of money.