Houses in Santorini island

Santorini is characterised by its picturesque white painted houses on the top of impressively high cliffs.
The main reason the inhabitants of Santorini were choosing areas so far away from the sea was the fear of the pirates.
A village in Santorini is very similar to all the villages in most of the Greek islands of the Cyclades: small white-painted houses with blue doors and windows divided by narrow streets.This kind of architecture can be explained by several reasons:
the small number of secure and easy to build on places, protection from the hard weather conditions (heavy hurricanes in winter and solar heat in summer), a shelter from the many pirates of the area, and also scarcity of construction material.
The design also suits the climate with the rock insulating in the winter and cooling in the summer.
From an architectural point of view, some of the most important characteristics of the construction style in Santorini are the caves that were built in the hill and in prolongation of each house.
These caves also kept an average temperature during the entire year. Because of the volcanic history and terrain of Santorini, many houses had some, or most of their interior, made by burrowing into the rock.
Today, many of these picturesque houses have been restored and turned into beautiful villas or hotel complexes.
These houses are located in the charming villages of Fira, Firostefani and Oia.
Because of the widespread wine making on the island, many houses also had their own tank installed to crush the grapes.

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Houses in the Greek islands

Folegendros island

Cycladic architecture is famous for its uniqueness and charm.  When you visit a Cycladic town or village for the first time, you may have the feeling that you are inside an enchanting stage set.
The streets are characteristically paved with whitewash-outlined polygonal or rectangular flagstones. The pattern of the flagstones is usually adapted to fit along the outsides of the buildings, which are of two main styles: narrow-facade (“stenometopo”) and broad-facade (“evrymetopo”). Buildings on the same block are most likely to be in the same style, with similar features. Therefore, a row of narrow-facade houses will have approximately the same dimensions and the same design. The houses usually have two storeys, with an outside staircase that allows separate access to the upper storey from the street.
The outside staircase exists regardless of whether the house is used as a single-family dwelling or two separate families individually own the ground floor and upper storey.
Separate ownership of individual floors is a popular tradition in the Cyclades, dating centuries back. It apparently started because of the lack of space within the fortified settlements, but it satisfied other needs too, as the lack of storage spaces.
The exteriors of Cycladic buildings are simple and unembellished, whitewashed, with only a few windows and

Myconos island

a particular type of roof, which comes in three variations: vaulted, inclined, or pitched. For the most part, Cycladic houses resemble connected stark-white cubes.
The interior of the houses is also similar, with only minor variations from island to island. The inside space is divided into two unequal sections by a kind of platform, 1-2 meters high and up to 3 meters wide, extending either the length or width of the house. This platform is called, alternately, “krevatos” (bed), “kraatos” or “sofas” (couch) depending on the locale. The furnishings, which are impressive for their aesthetics refinement and usefulness, are in total harmony with the decoration and architecture of the house. The interior decor consists of small cabinets, the “stamnos” (water jug) stand, trunks to store clothing, wardrobes, icon stands, wooden-carved chests, as well as a variety of furniture built into the walls.
Perched on cliff-sides, with an economy of space ensured by native ingenuity, these single or two-storeyed houses blend with church facades, fountains, windmills to compose pictures seen nowhere else in the world.

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Traditional houses in Kozani region-Greece.

The architectural style of Kozani’s urban residences reached its full expression around the middle of the 18th century, a time when the town’s merchants were acquiring considerable financial power and their way of life became more urbanized, influenced by trends from central Europe.
Most of the wealthier mansions still standing today in our region, date from the second half of the 18th and the 19th century. They are rectangular in plan and their comfortable upper storeys are richly ornamented.
From outside, the mansions resemble fortresses, since their lower section (middle and ground floors) is dressed with bare stone and equipped with loopholes and only a few barred windows. Conversely, the top floor is a light construction of varnished wood with enclosed balconies (’sachnisia’) at the corners and larger openings (windows and transoms).
In times of danger the inhabitants used to escape from a passage located in the small courtyard to the rear of the house, which communicated with the courtyards of neighbours and linked up with the town’s road network.
The low entrance, usually found in the western wall, leads to an inner, flagstone courtyard (‘embati’ or ‘mesia’) around which the various auxiliary spaces are grouped (storerooms, cellars, etc.). One stone staircase communicates with the middle floor, a second with the upper floor.
On the middle floor, arranged around an inner wooden balcony, are the ‘iliakos’ (sun room, the main reception room) and the winter reception and living rooms (‘heimoniatika’). The upper floor contains the summer rooms (‘kalokairina’) arranged around a central space, to the right and left of which are corridors, the lavatory and utility rooms.

Traditional house in West Macedonia

Lassanis Mansion in Kozani

The courtyard of Lassanis mansion

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