CHORA OF AMORGOS AN ARCHITECTURAL PROMENADE
This new photo book, on The Aegean Hill Town of Chora at Amorgos, an island of the Greek Cyclades presents an architectural reading of the town composition - the natural landscape and the town fabric and how they mutually shape one another. Perched 400 meters above the sea level, the town reveals itself through winding alleys, whitewashed houses, vaulted passages, and domed churches. It is a settlement shaped over centuries in dialogue with its rugged landscape. By bringing together first-hand impressions, photographs and notes, the book explores not only the town’s structure and architectural details, but also aims to uncover the timeless principles that underlie its form. Reflecting on how vernacular buildings arise from limited yet carefully chosen materials, modular dimensions and proportions, producing settlements of striking coherence, these lessons resonate with Bernard Rudofsky’s vision of "Architecture Without Architects" and the modernist fascination with the white cubic forms of Mediterranean towns. Chora emerges here as more than a picturesque village: It is a living record of how communities, across generations, inscribed their way of life into the fabric of a place — an architecture at once modest, enduring, and, deeply in harmony with nature. The author Ali Kural is a practicing architect and urban designer with degrees from the Middle East Technical University and Harvard University Graduate School of Design.