10 charming beach houses

For this unusual summer, we offer you a selection of ten seaside houses published on domusweb which made us dream this year.

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La redazione di Domus
08 August 2020

Despite the fact that, just a couple of months ago, it seemed to be hopelessly at risk, 2020 summer season started a new type of tourism, more timid and careful. Almost everyone prefers to stay in their national territories, opting for autonomous spaces or second homes. We present here a selection of our ten favourite beach houses among the different ones published in these uncertain months. We chose projects from Sardinia to Corsica, from Mexico to Costa Rica, to let us — at least — travel with imagination.

The 1960s Italian summer houses from Domus archive

Domus Archives

Studio La Ruota, by Ico and Luisa Parisi, A house on the lake for winter and summer, in Domus 417, July 1964 (Inside page)

Domus Archives

Vico Magistretti, Casa in Arenzano Pineta, in Domus 363, February 1960 (inside page, Photo Casali Domus)

Domus Archives

Ignazio Gardella and Marco Zanuso, Hotel at Capo San Martino, in Domus 344, July 1958 (inside page, Photo Casali Domus)

Domus Archives

Amedeo Albertini, Stay in a park, on Turin's hill, in Domus 383, October 1961 (Inside page, Photo Monti)

Domus Archives

Studio La Ruota, by Ico and Luisa Parisi, A house on the lake for winter and summer, in Domus 417, July 1964 (Inside page)

Domus Archives

Ignazio Gardella and Marco Zanuso, Hotel at Capo San Martino, in Domus 344, July 1958 (Inside page)

Domus Archives

Piero Sartogo, An attic in the heart of Rome, in Domus 431, October 1965 (Inside page)

Domus Archives

Today, as in the 1960s, holiday homes are once again the favorite summer destination. The spaces, optimized and flexible, inspired by the vernacular architecture of the Mediterranean, welcome the landscape, the guest of honor. In the Sixties, Domus focused on a number of projects that interpreted the modernity of homes lived in only a few periods of the year, which were “easy to maintain and to abandon” and responded to the need for flexibility, to accommodate large families, and where the landscape was the main guest and it was fully integrated into the home. Architects such as Bruno Morassutti, Ico and Luisa Parisi, Marco Zanuso and Ignazio Gardella renovated, arranged and designed buildings in which the landscape was habitable, too. Read full article here.

A house in Sardinia in pure Costa Smeralda style

Stera Architectures, house in Sardinia, Porto Cervo, Italy, 2019. Photo © Tiziano Canu

Stera Architectures, house in Sardinia, Porto Cervo, Italy, 2019. Photo © Nicolas Borel

Stera Architectures, house in Sardina, ground floor plan

Stera Architectures, casa in Sardegna, first floor plan

Stera Architectures, house in Sardinia, elevations

Stera Architectures, house in Sardinia, sections

Porto Cervo, as the whole Costa Smeralda real estate development, is a crucial episode in the history of 20th century seaside architecture. In the early 1960s, on the coasts of a land which had no touristic tradition, Luigi Vietti and others were able in the first place to define a style. A large-scale private house designed by Stera Architectures, Stefania Stera’s firm based in Paris, has recently integrated this site. Pivoting around a shaded courtyard, screened from strong prevailing winds, this complex architecture unfolds through a multiplication of volumes, terraces, patios, pathways. Read full article here.