CASAS COSTACABANA | med.arquitectos

The project was born from the premise of restoring the character of Mediterranean homes to a neighborhood marked by eclectic and distorted architecture since its origin in the 1960s, where rows of extremely minimalist white terraced houses once dominated the streets. We began with an L-shaped plot with two corners and the challenge of fitting two similarly sized homes. The plot was divided in two, and by taking advantage of the urban planning regulations of the area, we proposed aligning the buildings with the perimeter of the site.

Despite its proximity to the beach, the location lies on the urban fringe, very close to the runway of Almería airport, with the resulting noise disturbance and an immediate environment that discourages visual openness. For this reason, we decided to explore the potential of the traditional Andalusian courtyard house. We approached the project with a clearly introspective and intimate character—homes that looked inward, where the inner courtyard would play a central role.

Each house is structured around three courtyards: an entrance patio and a garage patio aligned with the street, and a central inner courtyard that functions as the heart of the home. This internal patio is positioned deep within the plot, serving the main living spaces and flooding them with natural light and greenery. All of this is protected by the remaining spaces, which are arranged along the perimeter. These include the guest bathroom, staircase, and kitchen, and act as architectural buffers—large inhabited air chambers that protect and serve the living areas while insulating them from direct contact with the exterior.

This alternation between open and closed spaces defines circulation and the placement of the program’s elements, always seeking cross ventilation and the most coherent spatial relationships.

The concept of the “bunker” is also reflected in the exterior appearance. False façades reaching up to nine meters high provide the project with visual unity, forming a pure volumetry punctuated by selective openings that shield from Almería’s scorching sun while framing unique views through their apertures. A white continuous finish evokes the traditional Mediterranean homes of the region.

We sought to treat the project as a seed of Mediterranean architecture, a precedent for the surrounding undeveloped plots—a starting point to bring back a cohesive architectural language to the neighborhood, inspired by the coastal urban nuclei of the Almerían Levante. A language of white, pure geometries with intimate and private interiors.

Casas Costacabana is a project of two single-family homes, yet conceived as a single architectural entity. A single volume encompasses both dwellings, and the urban treatment only reveals the duality through subtle façade shifts at the entrance patios. The initial confusion of the passerby is an intentional design strategy—a theatrical moment of discovery. We aimed for a building that would evoke the traditional architectures of the Mediterranean coast while being unique and innovative in its conception.

The false façades in the garage patios reinforce this idea, playing with the illusion of forming a closed entity, even if they are not. We propose that the alternation between open and closed spaces be reserved solely for the inhabitants—creating a duality of appearances between the public urban image and the true domestic interior.