Sometime during the mid ‘80s,  Blue Bay Hotel Ios** was built in a 3900 m2 plot at the Port of Ios island - overlooking Sikinos - without being renovated or reconstructed for more than two decades. 
 

That is until 2010, when the complete renovation of its premises was seen as a necessity, in order to improve the facilities and upgrade the services offered. A31 was then assigned with the responsibility to transform that 2* hotel to a contemporary 4* boutique hotel, which was named Relux Ios Island.

In order to succeed in that task, A31 redesigned the existing buildings’ outline as well as the bedrooms, the common areas and the surrounding landscape. The landscape design takes advantage of site specific features such as microclimatic and topographical conditions as well as the existing vegetation to blend the hotel exterior seamlessly into the surrounding natural setting.

The uneven shape of the plot which seems to be “embracing” the complex, forms private gardens as well as adding outdoor spaces for the hotel’s function. The gentle slope that can be easily detected in the surrounding space was utilized as the ideal environment for the addition of build-in sitting rooms or elevated planted areas.