Cristina Beach residential complex, Isla Cristina, Huelva
Low-rise homes facing the beach, gathered around a shared garden
How do you build on one of the last seafront plots while leaving room for shared life?
The proposal draws the buildings back from the edge closest to the beach, keeps the strip beside the pine grove clear and distributes the programme across four low, south-facing buildings. A communal garden with a pool gathers the entrances to all 72 homes.
Isla Cristina, on the Atlantic coast of Huelva and a few kilometres from Portugal, is a town with a fishing tradition that opens onto a long beach fringed by pine woods. Facing that beach, this 7,775 m² block is one of the last plots available on the seafront, separated from the water only by the pine grove along the promenade.
EDDEA and Arquigenia are designing 72 homes here, 56 houses and 16 penthouses, with underground parking and a retail unit. The complex is arranged around a large communal garden and sets out to let every home share in the landscape around it: the southern sun, the light of the sea and the shade of the pines.
Between the pine grove and the sea
The edge of the plot closest to the beach is subject to coastal protection, and the proximity of the sea makes the water table as decisive a condition as the regulations. The project turns both into arguments: it draws the buildings back from that edge, keeps the strip beside the pine grove clear and adjusts the height of each building to the gentle slope of the land towards the sea.
Four low, south-facing buildings
The programme is spread across four low-rise buildings. Three of them combine two levels of houses with a floor of penthouses; the fourth does without the penthouse level to preserve its neighbour's views. The layout turns as many homes as possible to the south, towards the sun and the beach, and keeps the inner garden on a single level, flush with the main entrance.
A shared garden as the place of arrival
The communal garden is the space through which every home is reached and the meeting place of the whole complex. It brings together the pool, the play area, the gym and a community room. Underground parking keeps the surface free of cars, and the retail unit occupies the corner, with a porch open to the street.
The homes, with two to four bedrooms, share the same principles: day and night areas kept apart, kitchens open to the living room and private outdoor space of their own, with gardens for the houses and generous terraces for the penthouses.
