Frames Facing the Sea

Project

Dénia Residences

Status

Competition

Type

Residential building, 45 apartments

Year

2016

Location

Dénia, Spain

Credits

Marin Marinović
Pablo Barquero

A residential complex in Dénia, on the Mediterranean coast, redesigned on a construction site that had already begun.

The existing structure was the starting point and the main constraint. Rather than fight it, the project accepts its regular grid and turns it into a rhythm. The façade is organised as a sequence of deep white frames, each holding a stack of generous terraces, so that repetition becomes order rather than monotony. The top floors step back beneath light pergolas, opening onto the sky.

The whole façade is conceived as a living skin of movable wooden brise-soleils. Sliding along the terraces, they allow each resident to shape light, shade and privacy through the day, so the building changes constantly, never looking the same twice. Inside, the timber screens project a soft striped light across open living spaces facing the sea.

At the base, dry-stone walls, olive trees and Mediterranean planting tie the architecture to the landscape and frame the gardens and pools. Born from an unfinished structure, the project finds its identity in adaptation: a building that makes the most of what was already there.