Carved into an olive-clad hillside above Kissamos Bay on Crete's northwestern coast, the terraced massing of Tella Thera reads like a small settlement grown from the earth rather than built upon it. Athens-based Pieris.Architects, led by Stella Pieri, completed the 20-suite eco-hotel in 2025, shaping its sand-coloured rendered facades into a cascade of arched openings that draw on the layered geometries of Venetian and Ottoman Crete. Landscape architect Karolos Chanikian planted green roofs across the terraces for passive cooling, and from the aerial view the building seems to dissolve into the scrub and cypress of the hillside it steps down. Inside, the arched motif carries through every room: tripartite arrangements of oak-lined alcoves frame wardrobes, bathroom entries, and open storage in a rhythm borrowed from the exterior. Polished microcement floors in warm bone run continuously from wall to wall, unifying spaces that might otherwise fragment, and the furniture stays close to the same tonal range — bleached oak frames, woven cord lounge chairs in the Danish tradition, raw stone blocks used as coffee tables, and terracotta pendant lights that introduce the only clear warmth in an otherwise pale interior. The restaurant terrace opens onto an unobstructed frame of sea and mountain that makes every other design decision around it feel exactly calibrated: simple, unhurried materials given room to work against one of the more arresting coastal landscapes in Greece.