Guilty Beach

Guilty Beach

LoT-arch as Architects

Nestled on the world-class island destination of Mykonos, Greece, Guilty Beach is a combination champagne bar, private beach club, and gourmet restaurant designed by LoT Office for Architecture. Recently opened in June 2013, Guilty Beach was conceived as a space imbued with the traditional hospitality-minded culture of Greec and sensual mystique of Mykonos while catering to contemporary indulgences of the pleasure-seeking individual. LoT’s design of the space was comprehensive, including custom furnishings, larger constructions of wood and steel framing, and spatial organization. By focusing on the themes of unyielding hospitality and service, lightness and openness, and timeless understated elegance, LoT created Guilty Beach to be both inherently contemporary and fundamentally contextual.


Panormos Beach of Mykonos is one of the most beautiful coasts in the world and serves as the context for LoT’s Guilty Beach. The outdoor upscale beach club taps into the island’s rich cultural heritage and epitomizes the ideals of Greece by offering a service-oriented space without the gaudy opulence that has become common on the island. LoT’s design harkens back to Mykonos’s heyday of the 1970s, when the island’s distant location and uniqueness created an atmosphere of genuine character rather than pretentiousness. LoT stripped the beach club typology of its artificial embellishments, and in doing so, rediscovered the essential Greek spirit.


Able to accommodate up to 250 people in its 1100 square meter (11000 square foot) space, Guilty Beach is comprised of main areas for poolside lounging and covered fine dining as well as free-standing structures for more specific functions. Continuity is achieved through spatial, visual, and tactile considerations, namely white furnishings with clean lines, a sleek overhead lighting system, and lightweight permeable boundaries. LoT carried this Greek sense of understated luxury into its custom designed furniture and construction details of larger built forms. Furnishings incorporate a range of textures, contrasting plush lounge beds, cool white marble tabletops, and steel mid-century sun shades against the fluid water of the central blue pool. Also reminiscent of a simple and authentic Mykonos, structures including a champagne selection room, store, DJ booth, and raised VIP platform, use steel framing and steel grid systems built up with wood.


Porous boundary conditions define soft volumes throughout the space. A perimeter wall becomes a partially transparent enclosure of thin white wood slats and clear glass. Overhead a delicate system of crossing wires with glowing spherical bulbs creates a sense of interiority. White wooden slats form soft curves surrounding free-standing structures, allowing air flow and visual transparency, and in the champagne room, creating a unique display piece. In the open-air restaurant that flanks the lounge area, patrons dine on fresh seafood under a bamboo canopy situated on patios differentiated by a series of potted bamboo plants, all of which creates a visual filter while still allowing a diffusion of light and sound.


LoT enhanced the essential notions of Greek hospitality and relaxation while elevating the beach bar concept into an intoxicating mélange of traditional island charm, chic design, and sophisticated dining. At Guilty Beach, LoT combined the essence, traditional ideas and materials of Greek everyday life to craft a cohesive contemporary design.

Project Credits
Architects
Product Spec Sheet

Project Spotlight
Product Spotlight
News
Snøhetta designs new extension for the world’s oldest ski museum in Oslo
28 Mar 2024 News
Snøhetta designs new extension for the world’s oldest ski museum in Oslo

Global transdisciplinary architecture and design practice Snøhetta has designed a new entranc... More

10 public buildings that demonstrate architectural applications of precast concrete
27 Mar 2024 Specification
10 public buildings that demonstrate architectural applications of precast concrete

Precast concrete is made by casting concrete in a reusable mold. These molds are made of various mat... More

Sameep Padora and Associates creates a flowing, organic art center in southern India
26 Mar 2024 News
Sameep Padora & Associates creates a flowing, organic art center in southern India

Mumbai-based Sameep Padora & Associates (sP+a) has completed Hampi Art Labs in Toranagallu, a vi... More

Introducing Partner Thermory AS
26 Mar 2024 Partner News
Introducing Partner Thermory AS

Thermory AS offers a diverse product range that includes durable exterior cladding, decking, interio... More

Brooklyn Tower by ShOP Architects showcases a unique materiality
25 Mar 2024 News
Brooklyn Tower by ShOP Architects showcases a unique materiality

Brooklyn Tower, standing an impressive ninety-three stories tall with a unique neo-deco crown, is al... More

Doriana Fuksas, Martin Lesjak, Li Xiang and Steven Wright join Archello Awards 2024 jury
25 Mar 2024 Archello Awards
Doriana Fuksas, Martin Lesjak, Li Xiang and Steven Wright join Archello Awards 2024 jury

Doriana Fuksas, Martin Lesjak, Li Xiang and Steven Wright have been announced as Archello Awards 202... More

Vurpas Architectes converts former brick and concrete market into light-filled primary school in Lyon
22 Mar 2024 News
Vurpas Architectes converts former brick and concrete market into light-filled primary school in Lyon

The Eugénie Brazier school project in Lyon, France, undertaken by regional architecture studi... More

Detail: Pleated facade geometry of Bonfiglioli HQ by Peter Pichler Architecture
21 Mar 2024 Detail
Detail: Pleated facade geometry of Bonfiglioli HQ by Peter Pichler Architecture

Designed by Peter Pichler Architecture, the new Bonfiglioli Headquarters is located in Calderara di... More