Rocabella Hotel

Mykonos 

Architecture in it's built form is the art of construction. Once architecture is applied on the Cycladic landscape, it has to adapt and respond to this unique environment, traditions and history, in order to envelop and shelter human activity. The hotel complex was first built in 2000 and several renovations, extensions and transformations have occurred to this day. Each intervention aimed to solve different issues of the operation of the settlement at the time. This ongoing three-year total reformation of the hotel, (completed in April 2025) started as an attempt to rethink the initial concept of the place and the reason of its uniqueness. Aim of the project was to bring together all the different faces of hotel, result of years of different construction works, needs and approaches, and turn them into one holistic unified entity with a distinct identity.

The main concept of the design approach was to attempt to recreate the image of rock formations scattered around the island, as well as the protective atmosphere of a cave. Afterall, the name Rocabella, means “beautiful stone” in Italian and honors the lovely stones that were originally part of its setting.

Project details

Architectural design, interior design: Eleftherios Ampatzis

Design team: Eleftherios Ampatzis, Margarita Koulouri, Victoria Tsingelis

Text: Eleftherios Ampatzis

Photography: Ioannis Promponas