Villainous lairs tend to share a few key defining qualities. They’re masculine in design, made of cold, hard materials like steel, glass, stone, and concrete. They’re difficult to reach, owing to all the secrecy, perhaps requiring a boat or a helicopter for access. They have grand proportions and a compelling air of mystery about them. Most of all, they’re ostentatiously luxurious. The NCaved home by MOLD Architects fits the bill to a tee, with an exterior reminiscent of James Bond’s many nemeses and an interior that calls to mind Nathan Bateman’s ultramodern hideaway in Ex Machina.

In a word, NCaved is dramatic. Set into the hillside on Greece’s Serifos Island, partially disguised beneath a blanket of dirt and scrubby vegetation, the home looks like one of those cliffside concepts that are a little too wild to ever be built, imagined by architects but scorned by structural engineers. In this case, however, we’re not just looking at skillfully rendered digital spaces. Completed in 2020, this home is, in fact, the real deal.
The camouflaged effect isn’t (to this writer’s knowledge, at least) an effort to hide from international authorities. The choice is an entirely practical one, as following the contour of the hill protects the home from the brutal northern winds while preserving spectacular views of the ocean.

“We applied a rectangular grid to the slope to produce a three-dimensional ‘chessboard’ o...