La Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill. Photo: Andrés Gallardo Albajar via Instagram @ thejournalshop.
With autumn and all its good intentions quickly approaching, we’re daydreaming of weekend getaways in dusty Mexican deserts, or languorous breaks in lush Italian olive groves. We’re not just fantasising about sunny locations but the sort of magnificent holiday home we might reside in. From Antti Lovag’s Instragramable masterpiece, Palais Bulles to Javier Senosiain Organic House, here are some of the most fantastically-designed summer villas we’d love to pack up our things and escape to.
Palais Bulles, Théoule-sur-Mer — Antti Lovag
Hungarian architect Antii Lovag’s Bubble Palace (or Palais Bulles) is an ode to excess. Tucked away in the South of France, the sprawling, spherical property was reported to be on the market for a cool $456 million. (For any buyers, luckily, the price has now dropped to $355 million, a comparative bargain!). Characterised by its circular rooms and soft curves, the house has a ‘70s space-age vibe to it. Lovag insisted on an absence of straight lines and corners (even the beds are round), considering angular design to be “an aggression against nature.” With a design as unique and imaginative as this, it is unsurprising that the Palais Bulles has been the backdrop for several art, fashion and pop-culture events—it was also the one time holiday home of French fashion designer Pierre Cardin. From Emma Bunton’s Free Me album cover photoshoot, to Dior’s 2015 cruise runway show, Lovag’s spectacular villa is ingrained in our cultural memory.
Ideal for: Impressing your friends.
La Muralla Roja, Calpe — Ricardo Bofill
Translated into English as “The Red Wall”, La Muralla Roja are a whimsical set of 50 interlocking apartments located in the town of Calpe along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. As eye-catching as it is political, the postmodern complex was designed by revered Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in 1968, and today—considering its Wes Anderson-esque pink-toned walls in the era of millennial pink—is surely one of the most Instagrammed architectural sites the world over. Known for frequently evoking history and current affairs in his designs, Bofill sought to reference the architecture of North African casbahs when creating La Muralla Roja. Boldly cutting out from the stony cliff face, the angular and geometric villas are an unmissable architectural spectacle.
Ideal for Instagram photoshoots.
Neuendorf House, Mallorca — John Pawson and Claudio Silvestrin
Built in 1991, Neuendorf House on the island Mallorca designed by British architect John Pawson, together with Italian architect Claudio Silvestrin is a monolithic masterpiece planted amid lush almond groves. Rendered in burnt-pink-tinged plaster, the house is a feat of stark, geometrical design—almost monastic in its simplicity. Although the villa is commonly known by the family name of its German owners—Neuendorf House—it’s actual name is Els Comellars, a Mallorcian word for a fast-flowing current. Somehow, the name captures the majestic energy of this clean-lined, placid palace.
Ideal for meditating on the necessity of minimalism in your life.
Villa Cardo, Puglia — Studio Alan Trotter
Located in idyllic Puglia in Southern Italy, Villa Cardo is a revelation of cool, contemporary design that somehow manages to stay in keeping with the architectural traditions of the locale. The work of Studio Alan Trotter, the white-walled holiday home borrows from the simple, cubic buildings of the surrounding area, culminating in a magnificent rectangular swimming pool in the olive-tree dotted back garden.
Ideal for a last-minute, late summer getaway to escape your romantic summer dramas.
Organic House, Mexico City — Javier Senosiain
It is hard to imagine that Javier Senosiain designed the Organic House in 1984. As environmentalism pervades cultural conversation, Javier Senosiain’s Mexico City villa—known as the Organic House—feels startling ahead of its time on account of its environmentally-in-tune ethos. “The green dune wraps itself around the inside spaces almost completely, rendering it almost invisible so that, from the outside, all one sees are grass, bushes, trees, and flowers,” said Senosiain about his creation and its ties to the natural world. The result is somewhat of an optical illusion, as undulating greenery cloaks the peanut-shaped house entirely, concealing the villa from view. Seamlessly integrated into nature, the Organic House is a beguiling architectural feat, blurring the lines between landscape and residential architecture.
Ideal for hiding away from the world (and environmental disaster).
Falling Water House, Pennsylvania — Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water House in rural South Western Pennsylvania is one of the American architect’s most memorable designs. Built in 1935, the house—structured partly over a waterfall—was made a Historic National Landmark by the US government in 1966. Lloyd Wright’s masterful creation fuses the natural and the domestic world together, as the waterfall appears to pour out of the insides of the house. His choice of muted colours and natural materials allow the house to seamlessly blend into its surroundings in a harmonious architectural symphony. Crowned the “best all-time work of American architecture” by the American Institute of Architects in 1991, no list of dream summer holiday homes would be complete without Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece.
Ideal for catching up on your correspondences in a rural American setting.
Sonora House, Sonoran Desert — Davit Jilavyan and Mary Jilavya
There is something about pink walls that makes for a happy home, and this Mexican desert-dwelling is the ultimate proof of that. Cast in candy pink, Sonora House is a majestic residential structure, one which is compiled of fantastical sculptural elements, and lights up at night like a glowing Barbie-pink ship in the sands. Designed by Russian architects Davit Jilavyan and Mary Jilavyan, Sonora House is a playful dreamhouse.
Ideal for your ultimate summer house party—the house lights up, need we say more.