Sustainability
Villa Klar is located in the middle of a wide open agricultural zone of Paros; only five minutes drive from Naoussa.
We produce with our solar energy systems the electricity for the whole house and feed with it the heat pumps, which can cool the rooms in summer and heat them in winter. Thus we make a sustainable contribution and protect the environment. Since 2024, we are offering at Villa Klar an air-condition system.
The Natural Swimming Pool (NSP):
The 10m x 5m natural swimming pool is an artificially created ecosystem that uses the intelligence and wisdom of nature to achieve purely biological water treatment.
Enjoying living, clean, refreshing and healthy water, harmless to skin and eyes, free from harsh chemicals and free radicals. This eco-friendly aquatic recreation space with low environmental impact, achieves the best quality and hygiene of the water, while requiring the lowest possible energy consumption.
The design of the pool and its functionality were developed by Nikostratos Vardakis of Aqua, a visionary company based in Switzerland with an international network known for its great expertise in natural swimming pools (NSP). We are proud to offer our guests the first NSP on Paros.
Please be aware that like in nature, the water is alive, it is an ecosystem and might have some cloudiness or some tiny aquatic animals from time to time due to its natural process. This is totally normal, is completely healthy to our body and is the proof that the system is running well; We are used in conventional pools to swim in dead water that seems to be clean to our eyes but puts a strain on the balance of the ecosystem and might be unhealthy for our and especially for our children's bodies.
The villa is surrounded by a freshly planted orchard with lemon, pomegranate, apricot, plum, banana, fig, and also olive and almond trees. We have reintroduced a few long forgotten tree species that were once part of the flora of Paros. On the north side of the house there is a large herb garden. We are happy if our houseguests make active use of these natural products. Elena Symeonidou has planned the garden and was responsible to make it come true. She is an amazing visionary and we are super thankful and happy that we can work with her.
Giannis Gryllis is one of the most famous garden architects with his passion to waterplants. His nursery close to Athens is world-famous and his love to develop new ideas to safeguard nature is contagious. In our NSP he took over the responsibility for all water-plants: Thank you for your enormous contribution, Giannis.
How does an NSP function? Please find details under: www.aqua-rain.ch
On request we offer our guests a fruit & vegetable subscription from an ecological farmer from Kolimbithres, who brings the products including olive oil, capers, fig jam and mountain tea freshly
harvested to the house.
Jorgo is our "poolboy" and takes care to all belongings around the pool system.
He is coming every morning between 07.00h and 09.00h, cleans the pool, fills water and observes the animals.
Around 20.00h in the evening he comes back and checks the system before going to bed. He is speaking English and 6 other languages fluently and is an awesome person. We admire him and are very grateful to have him in our team of Villa Klar.
Nasos is our "gardener" that is responsible for designing, maintaining and filling the gardens with passion, hard work and love. He is the best gardener on the island of Paros by far and we are thrilled that he is ready to invest himself and his know-how into the future of our gardens. Usually he comes at least two times a week to prune, to water, to check and to harvest in the gardens. We are SUPER happy to have him on board.
Nikostratos Vardakis
www.aqua-rain.ch
Nikostratos Vardakis started his career as a civil engineer, participating to some of the biggest projects of Greece such as Attiki Odos and Olympia Riviera Resort.
After that he followed his freelancer career in Crete building houses and roads… till one day, he accidentally saw in internet the concept of the Natural Swimming Pool - NSP.
That moment the die was cast, and since then he started his journey to discover the world of biodiversity and sustainable creations.
He brought the idea of the NSPs to Greece building the first one in Crete. Then was the moment when he met one of his most important mentors and a fellow traveller on his journey, Giannis Gryllis.
The economic crisis in Greece and his cooperation with the NSP experts opened the way for him to Switzerland.
There and after seven years of creating amazing gardens under the wing of one of the most important landscape architects of our time, Enzo Enea, he joined forces with AQUA AG to revive his passion for designing and creating water elements with purely biological water treatment.
Since then, in collaboration with an international creative team of engineers, planners, researchers and technicians, with respect for nature and trust in its wisdom, he and his teams are developing and realizing the best solution for any dream anywhere in the world.
Elena Symeonidou
Elena Symeonidou has studied Electronics and Computing Engineering in the National Technical University of Athens and Cinematography in Athens. She combined her knowledge in these fields having worked at the CERN Press Office for five years. In her quest for a more meaningful, sustainable and natural life, she travelled in Europe, Asia and Australia and got involved with Permaculture.
Permaculture ( = Permanent Agriculture / Permanent Culture) is an interdisciplinary design and management system of the human habitat. Its ethics is Earth Care, People Care, Control of Consumption, and Cooperation, instead of Antagonism, with Nature. Permaculture draws from traditional knowledge and modern technology, aims at food and energy self-sufficiency of human communities and at covering material and non-material needs regenerating nature on the way.
She has been working as permaculture designer and consultant in Greece, makes gardens wherever she puts an anchor, and believes that sustainability is not ambitious enough a goal but needs to be replaced with regeneration, as soon as possible, or else our time as species on this planet is running out.
Giannis Gryllis
www.grylliswaterlilies.gr
Giannis started out from a young age with the creation of botanical collections, the production of plants and the creation of gardens. As a result, his first degree in Agronomy was predetermined and his graduate degrees in Landscape Architecture and Floriculture completed the puzzle of scientific education. Through books he travelled to gardens all over the world, and later by creating the gardens he became devoted to the world of plants and gardens. In the process of creation, he realized the lack of a large diversity of plants in Greece. As a result, he decided to try the adaptability of many plants to the Greek conditions, an endless effort which led to the creation of the GRYLLIS WATER LILIES plant nursery.
Besides his plant production activities, Giannis has undertaken as a landscape architect a large number of projects in Greece and abroad with various themes and ecosystems. As a specialist in pond and biopools construction, he has advised and shared his knowledge with many people who wish to realize their dreams.