Housing and Hospitium on Rhenia Island

The decision of the Athenians at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war to enforce the clearance (catharsis) on the island of Delos, namely the prohibition of burials and births on the holy Island, converts the western nearby island of Rhenia in one of the important cemeteries (necropolis) of the ancient world. Archaeological excavations revealed the relics of an ancient settlement, burial monuments and shrines, tombs, altars, sarcophagi, scattered farm-houses of antiquity, material evidence of the past.

Today the island is uninhabited; it is used as a grazing and mild cultivation area by residents of Mykonos. There are five small Christian chapels and some scattered rudimentary shelters. To carry out systematic excavations some limited but basic building infrastructure are required.

The aim of this design course is to propose two residences for the permanent guards, that can accommodate their families, as well as hosting and working facilities for the scientists’ technicians and other researchers of the excavations.