Dream residences close to the sea and golf courses

Marbella is a well-known all-year holiday destination that is especially popular with golf enthusiasts due to the presence of an astonishing number of golf courses of all shapes and sizes. In Marbella it’s always spring. The climate is in fact so mild that snow covers the peaks of the nearby Cordillera Penibetica for less than one week a year. Marbella is also the perfect place for fun and relaxation. Renowned for its fine dining, it also has 27 kilometres of beaches and offers holidaymakers the chance to enjoy the sea and natural environment. Visitors are always enchanted by the eastern coast, which was spared the chaotic construction boom that devastated much of the Costa del Sol from the 1970s to the 1990s.
This splendid setting is home to Dunes Beach, an approximately 4,500 square metre residential complex on the edge of the protected natural area extending around Playa Artola — close to the more touristic port of Cabopino — and the watchtower built to guard against pirate incursions.
A romantic wooden walkway connects the new residences with the sea and the magnificent barrier of dunes.
The complex consists of 27 apartments designed to «provide an atmosphere of calm and privacy created by the proximity to the sea», explains Juan Carlos Sánchez-Cañete Liñán, founder of SC Arquitectos and director of the Technical School of Architecture in Madrid. «We studied every detail to diversify the apartments so as to offer guests a wider choice and above all to avoid the sense of impersonality typical of hotels. Ours is a tailor-made project.»
The residences are organised in two blocks separated by a large central space dominated by the seawater swimming pool and the solarium dotted with palm trees, bougainvilleas and plumbago plants.
The compact layout of the two volumes is lightened by articulated facades with a cage-like structure of almost dazzling white plaster typical of the majority of houses in the southern Mediterranean region. The wide horizontal strips intersect with the thin curved vertical laminas that separate the individual residential units, creating a play of solids and voids of the panoramic balconies. Crowning the structure is a gabled roof covered by white plaster as though to camouflage its function.
The light-filled interiors are meticulously designed down to the smallest detail and furnished with international design products that blend in with the natural context.
The floor and wall coverings extend seamlessly so as to soften the edges and contribute to the overall sense of comfort. Chosen in a sandy shade reminiscent of the colour of the dunes, it conveys the sensation of a soft, precisely woven and finely tailored fabric. But what at first glance appears to be an authentic textile in fact consists of Tailorart porcelain tiles by Ceramica Sant’Agostino. Their textured, three-dimensional surface reproduces the consistency of madras cloth with all the elegance and glamour of the world of fashion. The result is a delightful combination of taste, imagination and manufacturing expertise, cutting-edge technology and the desire to experiment — all of which are distinctive characteristics of the Italian ceramic tile industry.