Coastal Retreat
Residential architecture for coastal sites, covering beach houses and retreats shaped by sea breeze, landscape, and daily life by the water.
Coastal retreats are homes built for shoreline sites, where wind, salt, sun, and the surrounding landscape shape plan and material choices. Architects working in this typology often balance privacy with views and design for seasonal use rather than permanent occupancy.
Community projects here range from timber beach houses in Brazil to courtyard-centred retreats in Vietnam and houses set among cork oaks on the Portuguese Alentejo coast. The work shows how each site's climate and vegetation determine layout, enclosure, and the relationship between interior living and outdoor space.
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GAM Arquitetos Builds a Coastal House in Brazil That Doubles as a Living Archive
In Praia do Forte, a timber-wrapped beach house organizes domestic life around memory, collection, and the Atlantic horizon.
GAM Arquitetos Wraps a Brazilian Beach House in Timber to Hold a Family's Collected Life
Acervo House in Praia do Forte layers wood, stone, and memory into a coastal retreat built for gathering and display.
Sabrab Threads a 500-Square-Meter Retreat Between Cork Oaks on Portugal's Alentejo Coast
In Melides, a family house defers to centuries-old trees and rolling terrain, reinterpreting Alentejo vernacular through concrete, lime, and glass.
T3 Architects Organize a Vietnamese Coastal Retreat Around a Central Garden and Sea Breeze
KeGa Villa sits between a national park and the South China Sea, using climate-responsive design to dissolve the line between indoors and landscape.
