A total project, “from the spoon to the city,” we might have said in the past, and truly camouflaged in the sense that it reproduces the nature of the island, its traditions and crafts, as in a story written with painstaking care, in a space of over two hectares, of which 4500 square meters are indoors. The owner, Venier explains, wanted to create a resort of sober, refined luxury, not overly decorated but certainly welcoming. “The client was interested in my idea of developing a project that would have a strong connection to the territory. Often, people in a given setting are unaware of the beauty that surrounds them, and wind up being attracted by faraway things. We were guided by the desire to realize that the traditions of a place are a fundamental factor. This led to a project developed together, evaluating and challenging everything from the outset, in a true spirit of collaboration.”

The first theme addressed by Venier was that of the surrounding nature, reflected in gardens full of olive trees, the main type of plant in the landscape design. “The palette of the interiors and exteriors rotates around the color of the olive leaves: the Plaka landscape is so strong that I have tried to find the hues that could completely blend into it, attenuating contrasts as much as possible. The same colors return in many of the furnishings and fabrics, while the grapevines (Crete is a land of wines) have become the decorative sign of the parapet of the central staircase, handmade in wrought iron.”

The universe of Cretan craftspeople and their traditions is represented by the resort’s entrance wall, with half-pots turned on a pedal wheel in the nearby village, using the shards of the other halves to make the pique-assiette decorations of the columns. Volakas marble crafted in Drama, near Thessaloniki, has been used for the big ‘quotation marks’ inserted in a pour of resin on the floor, forming ‘carpets’ for the services of the guestrooms.

“The Elounda landscape is a very strong presence,” Venier says, “and the resort is like a big theater, where nature is both actor and spectator, running the risk of making you feel overwhelmed.” In the midst of all these vivid features, the interior designer has therefore interpreted the theme of freedom, making a break with the schemes of urban living; along the central staircase, 16 large bamboo cages, with heights from one to three meters, form a lamp with an overall height of 11 meters. From the cages, butterflies have escaped, landing on the walls of the stairwell, all made by hand in sheets of beaten aluminium.