Interview: Dimitri Economou in connecting with his land and finding love in Villa Gaia

The piece of land that Villa Gaia stands on has been handed down from generations of Dimitri Economou’s family. Located in Lagomandra, it has been in the hands of his grandfather, to his father, and now himself, but he was the only one who has had the chance to build on this special space. It was just his luck that he didn’t only find inspiration in this home, but also love with his architect Argyri Chalkia. 

In the first two minutes of their first phone call, Dimitri said he knew she was the person to build this home for him. He had told her about his bouquet of ideas, and multitude of perspectives to execute his vision, but Arygri only replied with one statement:

 “I want to go there to see the ground, and touch the stone, and only then will I tell you what I think we should do.” 

Dimitri had all but two requirements: to allow for all of the magical Greek sun to enter the villa, and to make the villa look bigger than it is by creating areas inside and outside that are spacious. He didn’t want to focus on just the sun and the sea because you can find that anywhere in Greece. It was in that moment, that it was clear Arygri would be just as dedicated as Dimitri was to bringing justice to his ancestral property. She wanted to first feel the energy of the place, understand it, the ground, its possible shapes and inspirations. 

She had never seen it as a job, but as a personal project to bring life and give a compelling story to a previously blank piece of land. While Dimitri didn’t know her through any previous work experience, he had seen one of her works, and also liked the fact that she was fresh and youthful. He wanted a young architect not in age but in mindset, simply because younger designers usually had more fresh ideas and perspectives to input.

After visiting the land, Arygri had told Dimitri she wanted to construct a vacation home, not just a villa. He hadn’t fully grasped what she meant in the beginning, but eventually understood that she had wanted people who would come to the villa to feel like this is their own place, their vacation home. The idea was to take the feeling of an extended home and promote the experience of truly living in this house.

Something they consciously did was keep everything very minimalistic, to keep in the theme of stripping yourself of the unnecessary things. Why? Because their thought process was that when you go on holiday, you don’t need all your stuff with you.

Their notion was that once you arrive, you’d put all your clothes in the basement and only keep the basics that you really want, in your own room. Because if you’re on holiday, you’d realistically only need just 2 or 3 pieces of clothing, allowing you to be more free.

It was a little over eight months after finishing the house completely, that the two finally became a couple. Dimitri recounts that the love came naturally simply because throughout the entire time they were constructing, they were always talking 24/7. They shared ideas, and texted all morning, day, and night. Some would say that the house brought them together, and connected them in a fantastically deep way. 

Villa Gaia is what Dimitri and Arygri call their first baby together. Nowadays, as their first baby continues to grow through the years, it is still their project together, just like raising a child would be. They continuously discuss what to add or what to input to make it better and better, to mature it through the years and the times. While it was originally solely his, he’s made it clear to us that it is not just his but theirs. 

While the touches of both their preferences are visualised through their designer furniture such as the Marc Krusin clay table (which is also found in the MoMA in New York), or the outdoor sofa and sunbeds from Tribu, they agree that their true collective vision comes to life as you lay anywhere in the villa at night and have the windows open to the Toroneos Gulf, the sky, and the moon. It’s a magical feeling that both of them agree, even though they’ve been there countless times, cannot be put into words.

Villa Gaia is an experience that two lovers have splendidly crafted to allow you to step out of your own world and enter theirs.