Natural Materials in Taverna at Four Seasons | Caneplexus

Four Seasons envisioned this building as an updated Greek taverna that would operate throughout the day and into the night, offering the level of service implied by their brand but rooted in the Greek tradition of celebrating and sharing food in a beachfront location. The architect's proposal would be separated from the architecture of the cabanas above, and with the help of Caneplex Design product range, the pergola structures completed with the volume of the original taverna and were set into the landscape on two levels.

The landscape of man-made dry stone terraces was the main inspiration when it came to designing the new taverna. Their proposal was to incorporate the building even further with new pergolas that would expand with its contours and blend into them.

The terraced landscape is intersected by stone pathways and access ramps throughout. This lends a dynamic, circulation-led geometry to the site, that encourages guests to trickle through from the hotel and cabana bungalows, down to the beach. The back-of-house facilities of the building itself are contained within the stone walls of the terrace, a submerged structure with a green roof. In front of them is an Iroko pergola, sitting in the footprint of the original pergola but inspired by the dynamic geometry of the site itself. Echoing the curved design of the Arion Hotel and in contrast to the adjacent more formalistic Nafsika building the pergola swerves in response.