To go to Delphi is to journey again in time. To not the sixth century BC — when the Pythian oracle disbursed prophetic hexameters to the throngs who got here to seek the advice of her — however to the Sixties, the golden age of Greek tourism. Classic adverts for Kodak movie grasp above memento outlets peddling museum replicas. Retro indicators in Hellenistic font herald guesthouses named after each Greek god and demigod beneath the solar. The classiest place to remain is the Amalia Delphi, a modernist masterpiece designed in 1963 by Nicos Valsamakis — arguably Greece’s best residing architect and nonetheless working regardless of celebrating his one centesimal birthday in July.
When the lodge was constructed, there was nothing round however antiquities and empty fields. Angular and elongated, its white strengthened concrete will need to have made fairly an announcement among the many ruins. “There have been no inns in Delphi again then,” Valsamakis remembers. “We needed to keep in [the nearby village of] Arachova whereas building was happening. There was a pigsty under my bed room, and the flooring had been wood so you possibly can hear and odor the pigs. All inns in Greece had been like that after the conflict.”
Sixty years on, the Amalia Delphi nonetheless cuts a touch. The open-plan foyer and lounge stretches to full-height home windows, which draw within the shimmering sweep of the Crissaean plain — an expanse of olive groves dropping to the flat sheen of the distant sea. A lot of the unique furnishings, all designed by Valsamakis himself, is unbroken, together with the putting floating hearth, the shapely wood bar stools, the low-slung armchairs and the wood-panelled entrance desk. A lot of the heat, pleasant workers have additionally been round for many years, including to the sense of coming into one other period.
The sharp modernist geometries are softened with conventional supplies. Huge stairs of grey-green Pelion stone result in the guestrooms, in two separate wings. Sadly, the bedrooms have been largely stripped of their classic allure, save for the hand-painted tiles by the twentieth century artist Yannis Moralis mounted on the roughly plastered partitions. Elsewhere, eagle-eyed design aficionados will spot ornamental ceramics by Eleni Vernadaki, one other of Valsamakis’s friends, who remains to be going robust in her nineties.
Valsamakis is Greece’s reply to Oscar Niemeyer or IM Pei and as prolific as ever. He commutes each day from his acclaimed home within the Athenian suburb of Filothei (one other Sixties landmark, which graced the quilt of Taschen’s One Hundred Homes for One Hundred European Architects of the Twentieth Century) to his workplace within the downtown Kolonaki district.
The lower-ground-floor follow is as modest and discreet as the person himself. After I lastly discover the doorway, Valsamakis is ready to greet me personally within the plant-filled atrium. He appears to be like dapper in a sweater and button-down shirt, his silver hair neatly swept again from his excessive brow. He works with a tiny staff of architects and archivists within the low, book-lined house. Though Valsamakis has designed and constructed over 300 homes, residence buildings, inns, banks, colleges, and villas since he arrange his follow in 1953, he doesn’t have an internet site and barely offers talks or interviews. He prefers the buildings to talk for themselves.
Among the many most notable examples is 5 Semitelou Road, the primary trendy polikatoikia (multistorey residence constructing) in Athens. Valsamakis was a third-year pupil at Athens Polytechnic when he designed the constructing in 1951. “I had simply been discharged from the military and my pal, who was the engineer, was nonetheless doing his three-year army service. We didn’t have any cash. However we had been in a rush as we had been determined to be the primary to construct a block of flats in Greece,” says Valsamakis.
“We noticed this plot of land on the market and came upon the proprietor was Dr Louros, the doctor to the king and queen. ‘One among you is a pupil and the opposite is a conscript. Why on earth would I belief you to construct me a block of flats?’ he informed us. However ultimately, Louros agreed and saved one flooring for his non-public follow. At some point, he referred to as me to complain that the elevator was not sufficiently big for the royal household and their entourage.”
Through the years, Valsamakis constructed 4 different inns for the Amalia chain, based by the mercurial entrepreneur, Christos Coulouvatos. Situated close to to main tourism websites — the Acropolis, Olympia, Nafplion and Meteora — every lodge displays the native context, character, and the time it was constructed. The Amalia Athens, which nonetheless stands reverse the Nationwide Gardens, made waves in 1957 with its daring white marble façade. “We did a mock-up room and the entire Coulouvatos household confirmed as much as approve the furnishing — uncles, siblings, cousins, wives. They couldn’t consider there was no headboard, no chintz,” Valsamakis remembers with a wry smile. Ultimately, the jury reached a verdict: “We’ve been modernised!”
The Amalia Olympia, in-built 1977, is arguably the most effective preserved. Designed on an excellent white grid, with lengthy passageways and irregular apertures that reveal glimpses of yellow, terracotta and blue woodwork, from a distance it appears to be like like a Mondrian portray. After half a century, it nonetheless feels timeless and present. “All of the Amalia inns comply with the identical logic: a lodge is only a large home with plenty of bedrooms,” Valsamakis explains. “It’s basically a house the place folks ought to really feel welcome.”
Over the previous decade, Valsamakis has targeted his consideration on vacation villas. Though none are fairly as daring because the pair of homes in Anavyssos he created for 2 of his closest pals within the early ‘60s, his current villas have the identical uncompromising integrity and unpretentious environment. A few of them (just like the VLS villa on Antiparos, and Iriana in Porto Heli) can be found to hire. Now Valsamakis is engaged on an bold, 94-key lodge undertaking on Mykonos, on account of launch subsequent 12 months because the island’s first 4 Seasons resort. It’s supposed as an homage to the island’s conventional structure: Valsamakis hopes it’s going to seem like a Cycladic village that has at all times been there.
I wonder if the grandfather of Greek lodge design ever goes on vacation or stays at his personal inns. Valsamakis smiles. “I’m at all times on vacation. My work is pleasure.”
Particulars
Rachel Howard was a visitor of Advertising Greece (marketinggreece.com) and Amalia Delphi (amaliahotels.com) the place doubles price from €114, together with breakfast. Delphi is about three hours’ drive from Athens
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