On the exposed hills of Lia on Serifos, a rose-colored square rises above the rocky Greek terrain: M Residence, completed in 2026 by Athens-based MOLD Architects, is shaped by seven open-air courtyards carved through its compact volume. The home’s flat roof is punctured with irregular openings, revealing planted gardens and shaded passages that bring daylight and glimpses of the Aegean deep into the building’s core.
The project’s story began in 2011, when architect Iliana Kerestetzi first conceived the design during the early years of her practice. For more than a decade, the plan remained unbuilt until new owners revived it, inviting Kerestetzi to return to her original drawings with a changed perspective. “Opening that folder meant confronting an earlier version of ourselves,” Kerestetzi said. She described the process as a balance between preserving essential ideas and adapting them for the people who would inhabit the house: “The rooms opened more generously onto the courtyards, the materials became warmer and the details quieter.”
From above, the residence appears almost diagrammatic, a solid square with a series of cut-outs reminiscent of eroded rocks emerging at low tide. Its geometric silhouette is inspired by the enclosed architecture of Cycladic monasteries, combined with the cubic forms of local villages and the softer geometry of rural stone buildings. The exterior is largely solid, with recessed windows and perforated brick screens interrupting the terracotta plaster walls. The entire structure sits on a raised plinth, creating a shadow line that makes the volume seem to hover above the uneven ground. A rectangular swimming pool extends beyond the building’s footprint, introducing a sharp linear edge beside the irregular roof geometry.
Inside, the atmosphere shifts. Curved passages and rounded corners soften transitions between rooms, while pale wood cabinetry and large sliding glass panels bring warmth and texture. Each room bends gently toward a different view, and the sequence of seven courtyards establishes a rhythm of light and shadow, openness and shelter. Some courtyards are planted as small gardens, others offer shaded places to sit and look out to sea. The bedrooms and bathrooms have windows that look toward the coastline and sky.
Kerestetzi notes that the design was refined to create a more protected exterior while opening the interior more fluidly to the courtyards. “A room opens into a garden, a courtyard offers shelter, a shaded corner invites a pause,” she said. Kerestetzi said the colored plaster and the planting make the spaces feel intimate and hopes people move through them by instinct, choosing where to spend time depending on the moment.
The effect of shifting daylight is integral to the experience. Roof cut-outs cast moving shadows across the rounded walls, and perforated screens filter sunlight into smaller, shifting patches. The planting adds texture against the warm plaster, and in some spaces, the architecture frames the sky entirely, momentarily excluding the coastline from view. Kerestetzi said that a detail that’s barely noticed in the morning can become the most striking thing in the afternoon.
The home’s inhabitants have already begun to leave their mark. Under one roof opening, they have suspended a piece of white fabric that filters sunlight and moves with the breeze, a change the architect didn’t plan but welcomes.
The magazine has also looked at another contemporary estate with a striking profile.
Sources
- Designboom: MOLD punctures terracotta-colored greek island ‘M residence’ with seven open-air courtyards, October 27, 2026
- Wallpaper: This monolithic Greek island home is anything but a cliché, October 22, 2026
- FREEYORK: Mold Architects Serifos Retreat: Monolithic Cliffside Home, October 22, 2026
