The New Mediterranean House
Thick walls, deep shade and fewer materials: how a new generation of houses is returning to the climate logic of the coast.
For two decades the Mediterranean villa borrowed its image from elsewhere: large glass boxes, white render, pools placed wherever the view was widest. Many of those houses photograph well and live badly. They overheat in August and feel exposed in January.
The most interesting houses we have represented in the last few years start from a different question. Not how much can be opened to the view, but how the view can be framed, shaded and earned.
Mass before glass
Stone, lime and concrete are back, used thickly. Heavy walls hold the cool of the night and release it slowly; openings are set deep, so the sun reaches the floor in winter and stops at the threshold in summer.
The result is a quieter kind of luxury: fewer materials, repeated with care, and rooms whose temperature feels natural rather than conditioned.
The garden as a room
Landscape is no longer a lawn around the house. Dry planting, terraces and courtyards are designed with the architecture, and they are often the rooms people use most.