A Greek Island House Designed in 2011 Finally Rises on Serifos

A house first drawn in 2011 now stands complete on the Cycladic island of Serifos, more than a decade after Mold Architects designed it. The project, called M Residence, sits in Lia on the small island between Kithnos and Sifnos, and its new owners chose to build the old scheme rather than start fresh.

The Athens-based, female-founded practice is no stranger to Serifos — M Residence was one of its very first commissions. It stayed on paper for over ten years. When the new clients picked it up, founder Iliana Kerestetzi found herself reopening her own early work.

'When the client expressed an interest in building it more than a decade later, I was thrilled,' Kerestetzi said. 'I still loved the idea, but opening that folder also meant confronting an earlier version of ourselves. The challenge was to look at the work critically while committing to its future. Our thinking had changed, and a design that had remained on paper was about to become someone's home. That gave every decision a different weight. What still felt essential? What needed to evolve?'

What changed between the drawing and the building?

The revisions weren't cosmetic. The architects simplified and softened the original plan. Rooms now open more generously onto the courtyards, and the palette got warmer and quieter.

'The rooms opened more generously onto the courtyards, the materials became warmer and the details quieter,' Kerestetzi told Wallpaper*. 'The house took shape through that exchange between our earlier intentions, our present perspective and the people who would inhabit it.'

The exterior volume stays compact and monolithic, a form the architect draws from local monasteries. Seen from above, the house reads as a pizza-box slab with a series of cut-outs — the source likens them to beach rocks emerging as the tide goes out. The upper storey sits high on the cliffside while the base nestles into the ground.

Inside, that hardness dissolves. Curved walls replace harsh angles and connect a sequence of seven courtyards within a square outline.

'We combined this with two other local architectural languages: the crisp, cubic rooms of the villages and the softer contours of rural buildings and dry-stone walls,' Kerestetzi said. 'Within a square outline, rooms turn gently towards different views, while curved walls connect them and draw out a sequence of seven courtyards.'

How does a monolithic house feel sheltered and open at once?

The design's conceptual core is a contrast: open and protected at the same time. Interior spaces were pushed outward toward the courtyards, which in turn create a more sheltered exterior. The whole volume is also raised on a plinth, producing a shadow line that makes the mass appear to hover above the ground. A swimming pool, added in the revision, sits outside the main volume in a geometric placement.

Kerestetzi's stated goal for visitors is ease. 'A room opens into a garden, a courtyard offers shelter, a shaded corner invites a pause,' she said. 'The warmth of the coloured plaster and the closeness of the planting make these spaces feel intimate. We hope people move through them intuitively, finding the spot that feels right for a particular moment.'

The house is also designed to be claimed by its residents. They've already hung a piece of white fabric beneath one roof opening, filtering the light. 'It filters the light and moves gently, bringing a softness we hadn't designed,' Kerestetzi noted.

Her favourite quality is that the house shifts character with light and season. 'A detail that recedes in the morning can become the most compelling thing in the afternoon,' she said — a house built from a decade-old drawing that its architect insists is still changing.