Villa Jondal: Minimalist Coastal Retreat On Rugged Mykonos Sea Cliffs
Villa Jondal sits on the wild edge of Mykonos, Greece, shaped by Bobotis+Bobotis Architects as a low-slung house tuned to the Aegean light. The project leans on minimalist lines and an earthy palette, drawing sea views deep into its rooms while keeping close to the textures of stone, timber, and clay. Generous terraces, shaded lounges, and simple interiors create a calm setting for life between pool and beach.
Salt air moves across the terrace, catching on linen cushions and the rough grain of timber posts before drifting over the pool toward the open sea. Morning light slides under the deep pergola, tracing bands of shadow that fall across stone paving and the low daybed built tight to the parapet.
This is Villa Jondal, a coastal house on Fokos beach in Mykonos, Greece, by Bobotis+Bobotis Architects. The project follows a minimalist approach yet leans into tactile materials and layered furnishings. Interior and exterior rooms share one quiet agenda: to keep the focus on horizon, breeze, and the grounded comfort of simple forms.
Inside, terracotta floor tiles run from entry to lounge, their warm tone steadying the pale plaster walls and dark timber ceiling beams. Seating stays low and generous, from the long sectional sofa to angular wooden lounge chairs set around solid timber coffee tables. Light filters through sheer curtains that soften the outline of stone-framed openings while still holding distant hills and water in view.
Terracotta And Light
Terracotta underfoot anchors each room with a consistent, earthy rhythm. Sun pouring in from large openings lifts the color, catching the uneven surface of the tiles and the subtle joints between them. Against this base, plastered walls and arched passages stay almost monochrome, allowing shadows to draw gentle lines that guide movement from one volume to the next. In the living room, woven rugs and a rough-hewn coffee table temper the hard surfaces and keep the palette grounded.
Rooms Opening Outdoors
Bedrooms open directly to the pool terrace through full-height glazed doors, so the line between interior floor and exterior stone paving remains visually light. Soft drapery and low beds echo the horizontality of the water beyond, while built-in wardrobes in dark timber add weight along the back wall. Even circulation zones turn toward outdoor life, with broad thresholds leading from shaded colonnades to the pool deck, lounge platforms, and stepped paths dropping toward the shoreline.
Textiles And Craft
Throughout the house, textiles carry much of the visual energy. A wall hanging in bold stripes animates a quiet hall, paired with simple niches holding clay vessels and a plain bench. Sofas and banquettes are dressed in muted fabrics, but patterned pillows and throws introduce small bursts of color that echo sea and rock. Timber doors, woven chair backs, and hand-finished ceramics reinforce a sense of craft without crowding the rooms.
Shaded Outdoor Living
The most dramatic rooms sit outdoors beneath thick timber pergolas and reed canopies that cast a shifting lattice of shade across stone floors. Long built-in benches line the edges, layered with cushions and low tables to frame conversation and quiet reading. A generous dining table stretches along one terrace, its timber chairs arranged to face both inland hills and the sea below. Nearby, an outdoor bed rests under the same structure, surrounded by stone walls and potted plants that keep the open deck feeling contained.
By the time the sun drops, shadows from beams and slats lengthen across tile and plaster, tying every terrace back to the interior rooms. From the pool edge, the house reads as a collection of calm, earth-toned volumes resting against the cliff, their openings glowing softly. Life at Villa Jondal unfolds in this balance between crafted surfaces and the raw Aegean landscape, held together by an interior palette that never distracts from the view.
Photography courtesy of Bobotis+Bobotis Architects
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