Tranquility

















































Description by Costis Psychas

Perivolas is the ultimate in laid back luxury. Poised on the cliff high above the Aegean, this intimate escape is designed as a place where you can let the rest of the world slip away. It’s just a short walk from Oia, the most beautiful village on Greece’s most romantic and dramatic island, Santorini. Built amphitheatrically, Perivolas’ secluded location combines expansive views with the luxury of absolute tranquillity. Terraced gardens spill down the slope to the infinity pool, which seems to slip off the rim of the cliff and bleed into the blue horizon. Only the occasional toll of church bells or the purring of a fishing boat far below breaks the meditative silence. It is easy to linger here all day, watching the changing light until the sun settles into the sea. Originally designed as a family home, Perivolas still feels like a private residence. Intimate in scale and atmosphere, every house is different. Built by native craftsmen using local materials, interiors embody Cycladic style, with its organic forms and smooth surfaces. Breezy rooms are naturally cooled by sculpted stone walls and vaulted ceilings pierced by skylights. Beds are built into snug alcoves,Niches and archways are scooped out of whitewashed walls, low-slung sofas offset by hand-woven rugs and cushions in vivid fuschia and lilac. All accommodations have terraces which offer uninterrupted Caldera sea views.

Peaceful and Serene




































This design is right up my alley with the water, the openness and the plants.

Description by Guz Architects

On a relatively small site at the end of a cul-de-sac, Wilkinson designed a tropical courtyard house with an identical parti to the Sun House: two pavilions on an L-shaped plan are placed at the perimeter, looking over a water garden comprising a large fishpond with an archipelago of tree-filled islands, which appears to merge with a lap pool encased in a sheer glass rim. These two houses are described by Wilkinson as his ‘most watery’, and the Cluny House does reinforce the oft-repeated observation that small tropical houses come alive when water is used as the focal point of a central courtyard. But to refer to this house as small seems rather incongruous, as the scale and transparency of the landscape, and the reflections of the sky and trees in the pond, conspire to allude to the infinite, with the architectural massing all but hidden. Wilkinson was using the water garden to draw the eye away from the structure and the elements, thus creating an over-riding illusion.
At the request of the client, the main staircase was enclosed within the house, a decision that prevented the usual two-level promenade architecturale of Wilkinson’s open circulation routes, which pass through an exposed staircase zone. As the house thus comprises two discrete floors, it possesses a distinctively dissimilar appearance on elevation to his contemporaneous houses. Wilkinson was able to turn this to his advantage, however, as by cantilevering second floor roof gardens along the length of the uniform elevation, he created a barrier of greenery to screen the upper level, so that the mass of the house appears recessed, hidden by the plantings. Further visual trickery was employed in the landscaping to hide the proportions of the architecture: Wilkinson was concerned that the proportions of the open verandah, projecting into the water garden, would appear short and stubby, so he spanned a vine draped trellis over the pool to continue the form and length of the fin-wall in the verandah.
The Cluny House was orientated towards its views, but every view is internal, confined within the boundaries of the site. Wilkinson designed a completely self-referential world, which provides its own delights and creates its own micro-climate. The most sublime vista is to be had from the long L-shaped walkway beneath the lip of the cantilevered roof gardens, where the low wide soffits ripple and sparkle in the sunlight reflected from the surface of the ponds. The panorama of tropical fecundity is languid and luscious, framed and contained by Wilkinson’s careful delineation of line and edge.

Nob Hill/San Francisco

Nob Hill Pied-a-Terre by Leverone Design



Nob Hill Pied-a-Terre by Leverone Design



Nob Hill Pied-a-Terre by Leverone Design



Nob Hill Pied-a-Terre by Leverone Design



Description by Leverone Design

This classically modern 1950′s pied-a-terre is located on San Francisco’s Nob Hill. Perched above Huntington Park and a stones throw from Grace Cathedral, the building’s multiple steel framed windows give access to extraordinary views. Never wanting to compete with the exceptional urban setting, a neutral gray palette was chosen for the interior’s backdrop. The introduction of oak paneling and the layering of rich deep blue’s add warmth and calm. Soft wools and crisp linens wrap tailored, sophisticated furniture – transforming the previously cold and sterile space into an inviting interior that stands up to its world class location.