Porta Rossa in Kastellorizo: residence for creative people with Mediterranean spirit

The experiment originally started in Grasse, Provence, in 2018, where Società delle Api - founded by Silvia Fiorucci as a way of stirring up ideas and forging creative connections - opened up a residence whose five rooms were entrusted to five different design firms (5Rooms). This year, the non-profit organisation replicated the experiment at a residence in the heart of the Mediterranean: the Greek island of Kastellorizo. The house has been dubbed Porta Rossa after its red door, which opened just a few weeks ago. Four firms, selected by a jury, designed the four rooms (hence the project’s name of ‘4Rooms’) which will be home to the creatives in residence there. The brief was brief: interpret the Mediterranean and create functional spaces (that are also poetic). The project was a triumph and the curator, Annalisa Rosso, took us through how it unfolded, room by room.

The common areas on the ground floor were assigned to Superpoly, a Franco-Belgian duo who were previously involved in the original project in Grasse. “Their mark is distinctively Mediterranean, as they have very much absorbed the material culture of the South of France,” explains Annalisa, “finding the same stylistic elements in Kastellorizo, with something of a ready-made feel: fishing traps used as light fixtures, sponges wall mounted to become lampshades. The table is a paddleboard that can be taken out of the frame and actually used at sea! To create the sofas, they called on the expertise of a local craftsman who makes boats and invented a method of weaving that uses fishing line”. Everything is fresh and youthful, cobbled together with that feeling of cheerful impermanence that only seaside homes truly have.

Moving upstairs, we come to the rooms themselves, where the residents will spend anywhere from a few days to a few months. “The first one was given to Studio Brynjar & Veronika: an interesting pair as he is Icelandic and she is German. Their poetics very much draw upon evocative elements: feathers, rock crystals and the like, all tinged with irony. There is the idea of drawing energy from natural elements, which proves to be a perfect match for the raw power of Kastellorizo, a rocky island”. In the bedroom, the red of the walls is redolent of the rock of the island, the blue of the bathroom mimics the Blue Cave, a key attraction in Kastellorizo. “Strong evocations of nature,” continues Annalisa, “combined with close collaboration with a craftsman who lent his skills to the wooden elements, such as the book-shaped chair, following a descriptive poetics”.

Opposite this is the room designed by Cypriot Phanos Kyriacou. Essential, almost monastic in its minimalism. “The sense of isolation is an integral part of his experience,” confirms Annalisa Rosso, “and that was what brought him back to Kastellorizo. Phanos is a sculptor, so all his elements are freestanding, sculptural marriages of form and function. His work is concentrated on the basic elements: he penetrates to the essence of things with evocations that are his memories”. The bedspread was crafted with a traditional Cypriot technique, joining together pieces of fabric. “On it is a nursery rhyme that he has called a ‘serenade’ to Porta Rossa,” concludes the curator.

Up another flight of stairs, we come to the room designed by Julie Richoz, a Swiss-French designer who has also opted to work with fabrics. “She has drawn inspiration from traditional women’s clothes,” explains Rosso, “in the textures of the carpet, which is made in Morocco; in how she has painted the ceiling; in the ready-made lamp, which is nothing more than a small scarf arranged atop a bottle. The concept for her intervention stemmed from a plastic chair - a very common object around here - which Julie covered with various fabrics”.

And to round it off, the fireworks: a room designed by UND.studio, an eight-strong collective of creatives based in Berlin. Imaginative, surreal, flamboyant. “Everyone made their own contribution,” explains the curator, “an intriguing collection of evocations of the island, culminating in the idea for the floating platform with a suspended bed. The bedroom is a multifunctional lunar module of sorts where you can sleep, work and store any number of tools. It is the visionary zenith of 4Rooms”. Spring will see the first residencies for creatives starting up: the intriguingly-designed ‘nest’ of Porta Rossa is ready and waiting.

Antonella Galli

Captions and credits

Porta Rossa in Kastellorizo, the residence of the Società delle Api.
4Rooms design project for the four rooms, each entrusted to the winners of an invitation-only competition. The committee was composed of Michael Anastassiades (Designer), Alexis Georgacopoulos (Design Expert, Director of ECAL), Silvia Fiorucci (President and Founder of Società delle Api, Collector), Cristiano Raimondi (Vice President of Società delle Api, Curator) and Annalisa Rosso (Creator and Design Curator).

Credits De Pasquale + Maffini
All images: Courtesy of Società delle Api

01, 03, 04, 15 Common areas on ground floor, designed by Superpoly (France)
02 Silvia Fiorucci, President and Founder of Società delle Api, at Porta Rossa
05 and 10 The room designed by Studio Brynjar & Veronika
06, 16 The room designed by Phanos Kyriacou
07, 09, 14 The room designed by Julie Richoz
08, 11-13 The room designed by UND.studio

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