The architecture and design studio K-studio has revived a Dexamenes, an abandoned wine factory on the west coast of Greece. The history of Dexamenes dates back to the Currant Era. Since the liberation of Greece in 1830, currant cultivation has taken on impressive dimensions and currants have been the main export product of the Greek kingdom. But when the “currant crisis” broke out in Greece in 1910, trade collapsed and there was a need to convert unsold stocks of currants into alternative products, such as wine. It was then that the first wine cellars and distilleries were established. The Dexamenes was built on the sea so that ships could be loaded with wine directly from the tanks before sailing to the main overseas markets.

Now the property, now abandoned since time immemorial, has been renovated in the hotel dexamenes.
K-studio has worked to emphasize the raw materiality of the site, avoiding the introduction of foreign elements or materials. This design strategy has guided the studio in defining its palette of concrete, steel and engineered glass with the addition of wood as a reference to the nautical context of the project. The design serves to contrast and balances the old and the new using a contemporary industrial palette.

The structure is characterized by two concrete blocks divided longitudinally into two rows of ten storage tanks of about five by six meters. K-studio used these tanks in the design of a row of hotel rooms, which open out towards the sea.

“You can feel the weight of the history of the place from the concrete buildings that surround it, but you are relieved by the energy of this new space full of light and, as you move towards the bar and lounge, from the first view of the sea”. K-studio was able to give new life to a part of the coast, which had long since been abandoned, giving the population a real pearl of design.