Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino: architecture that settles into the hill

Above the bay of Navarino, in the Peloponnese, Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino offers a calmer reading of resort luxury. Designed by Alexandros N. Tombazis and Associates Architects with K-Studio, it scatters its volumes across the hillside rather than asserting itself upon it. Forty-eight earth-sheltered villas, a masterplan drawn from Greek rural enclosures, a deliberate restraint: the project shows how an exceptional destination can stay attentive to its land, its climate and its culture.

A masterplan drawn from the mandria

BREBA Claus Brechenmacher & Reiner Baumann

The architects’ answer lies in a decentralised masterplan rooted in Greek rural typologies. The mandria, organic stone enclosures that once adapted to the terrain with quiet pragmatism, supply its guiding principle. The resort carries that logic to a new scale, arranging its accommodation in clusters that follow the contours of the hills. Forty-eight earth-sheltered villas, each with its own pool and framed by gardens, form the heart of this dispersed structure. Every villa gains privacy and autonomy. Interiors flow into shaded outdoor living spaces, producing a three-part spatial rhythm: interior, semi-sheltered, fully open. The scattered layout keeps wide views across the bay while giving each guest a genuine sense of refuge.

An architecture of thresholds

BREBA Claus Brechenmacher & Reiner Baumann

The handling of thresholds sets the tone. Wide overhangs, deep-set openings and filtered views turn each passage between inside and outside into a moment of calm. Materials extend that restraint. Stone and terrazzo are used in tactile, understated ways, while Mediterranean textures and tones meet curated international details that evoke the spirit of travel. The plan stays intuitive, shaped around clear orientation and meaningful views from every room. Circulation runs open-air wherever possible, letting nature remain a constant presence alongside the guest. This continuity between building and landscape produces a hushed experience, where comfort grows from measured scale rather than from any demonstrative gesture.

Restraint and climatic intelligence

BREBA Claus Brechenmacher & Reiner Baumann

The project’s coherence shows in how it operates. The layout allows a scalable opening: clusters of rooms or villas move in and out of use with the seasons, optimising energy consumption. Outdoor circulation reduces the need for cooled corridors. Covered terraces and entry courtyards temper climate extremes and lighten mechanical loads. An environmental logic runs through every decision: planted roofs, thermal mass, cross-ventilation, locally sourced materials wherever possible, water-efficient landscaping, low-impact lighting and energy zoning. The resort favours serenity over spectacle. It abstracts traditional forms rather than copying them, reinterpreting the spirit of the village through contemporary materials and methods, and shaping a hybrid typology of its own.

Tombazis and K-Studio, two Greek signatures

BREBA Claus Brechenmacher & Reiner Baumann

Founded in 1963 and based in Athens, Alexandros N. Tombazis and Associates Architects introduced bioclimatic design to Greece in the late 1970s. Its motto, borrowed from Mies van der Rohe, reads: less is beautiful. Its work includes the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima, Portugal. The studio’s partnership with Costa Navarino spans nearly thirty years, over which it has served as lead architect for four five-star hotels in Messinia, this Mandarin Oriental among them, delivered with K-Studio. That Athens practice, active for more than twenty years and founded by brothers Dimitris and Konstantinos Karampatakis, works across hospitality, residential and the public realm. The resort has already earned the Architecture Masterprize 2025, several AHEAD Europe and LIV Awards, and a place among the EU Mies Awards 2026 selections.