A monumental boulder, seemingly balanced precariously between the walls framing a staircase, stands out as an inevitable surprise for every visitor passing through. Its imposing and enigmatic presence is one of the most unexpected elements we find at Villa Aimasia. This villa is a new residential building born from the collaboration between A31 Architecture, founded in Athens by Praxitelis Kondylis, and Design Research Studio, Tom Dixon’s interior design agency. In the background, the sea and rocky hills of Mykonos — each unique and archetypal in their own way — hint at the mimetic principles that inspired the placement of the stone.
The 850-square-meter villa is conceived as an intervention deeply rooted in the natural environment, while standing out from the formal language of the surrounding hotels and residences, which are, fortunately, not too densely packed in this corner of the island.
“The regional vernacular architecture is grounded in the logic of superimposed white cubic volumes, a visual archetype synonymous with the Cyclades islands,” explains Kondylis. “Our intent was to challenge this architectural paradigm, proposing a design that asserts itself as a distinct, incisive intervention while maintaining a profound continuity with the site’s geological features and anthropomorphic contours.”
Built into a steep slope, the villa has two levels, opening toward the coast with an uninterrupted view through the glass walls of the living area on the upper floor. An infinity pool creates a visual dialogue with the sea, while the crisp lines of the villa’s walls blend seamlessly with the dry walls that mark the varying elevations of the surrounding garden and land, further anchoring the building within this small bay.
While the sculptural aesthetic may evolve, my approach to design remains largely the same.
Tom Dixon
In collaboration with A31, Dixon and Helene Bangsbo, the creative director of Design Research Studio, designed the interiors. “I feel that too many interior designers impose their personal style on any property they work on, which doesn’t really appeal to me. What I’m interested in is finding even just a small trace of the local identity and reintroducing it into the space,” Dixon explains. The local nature, far from common stereotypes, emerges through the choice of materials, such as the use of marble and cement finishes made from KM0 stones.
However, these elements also reveal a clear continuity with Dixon’s work as a designer: the creator of lamps, the metalworker, the tireless weaver of the new dialogues between design, context, and technology. What stands out in these spaces — where the architectural structure remains visible, avoiding any form of cladding — is the tactile thickness of the environment, its mineral, geological presence — a theme that Kondylis and Dixon frequently revisit. This sense of continuity, as Dixon describes, takes on the form of an attitude that goes beyond this specific project.
What I’m interested in is finding even just a small trace of the local identity and reintroducing it into the space.
Tom Dixon
As he explains, “My business is still deeply rooted in an appreciation for materials and manufacturing techniques. There’s also a clear focus on functionality, but equally on sculptural qualities, which is a consistent thread in my work. While the sculptural aesthetic may evolve, my approach to design remains largely the same.”
After the discovery of the boulder, it is the furnishings that give us another surprise, this time aligned with Dixon’s rejection of the ‘total look’ often associated with design celebrities. Scattered throughout the building - both in the upper-level living area and the bedrooms in the lower level - we find masterpiece furnishings from what Tom Dixon describes as his personal “design heroes.” These are designers he admired and studied during his self-taught years and later at Habitat, including, first and foremost, Achille Castiglioni, followed by Angelo Mangiarotti, Vico Magistretti, Mario Bellini, Isamu Noguchi, and Finn Juhl. Not limited to tributes to the past, contemporary designers also make an appearance, with pieces from Apparatus and Michael Anastassiades, and naturally from Dixon himself, including his cork table and bookcase, the Pylon chair, a vintage version of the S chair, and, obviously, his iconic lighting fixtures. Among these are intriguing prototypes tested for the first time within Villa Aimasia, such as a flat-pack mesh metal lamp holder and a reflective aluminum disk - “very Dixon” - with four versions of the disk suspended above the kitchen’s impressive granite counter.
In this gallery of iconic pieces, which transforms the space into what, on a vacation rental site, would surely qualify under “design villa,” art becomes a fresh element that adds a subtle new twist. As a return to his roots, many of the works featured among the furnishings are by Dixon himself. He calls this his “Covid-19 moment”: most were created during lockdown, often from reassembled materials and scraps in a freeform style, with some pieces even welded on-site in the villa’s entryway.
In the art chapter, other works by different artists make an appearance, such as a painting by Wolfe von Lenkiewicz depicting two enigmatic women — a piece created with artificial intelligence and displayed in one of the bedrooms. Dixon describes himself as a curious experimenter with AI, using it to broaden brainstorming during concept phases — currently for a new clubhouse in London — and to explore project development options, such as plant layout studies. Looking to the future, he sees AI playing a larger role in building personal data banks that drive generative creation. Yet he firmly acknowledges the value of craftsmanship, essential for escaping the somewhat predictable “digital soup” we have been exposed to in recent years. This blend of AI and manual work provides another chance to reveal the unpredictable irregularity of sculptural improvisation, akin to the irregularity of a boulder suspended, unmoved for millennia, indifferent to our relationship with space and technique.