Kabine 35: A Tribute to the Beach Cabin and the Coastal Landscape

Piraccini+Potente Architettura’s design for Kabine 35 draws on the lightweight structures of the local bilancionifishing piers as well as the beach cabins that dot the local shores and appear in Aldo Rossi’s 1979 work Un’altra estate.Discussing the watercolor, Rossi said, “I admit that here they represent a particular aspect of form and happiness: youth.” Located in the heart of Cattolica, near Rimini in Italy, the project is one of the studio’s latest works. The small home is sited between the dense city and the sea – a threshold between urban order and the changing shoreline, where local tradition and maritime history meet contemporary design.

Dual volumes

The residence comprises two stacked volumes: a base and an upper mass, the latter serving as the building’s compositional and visual focal point. Its essential, geometric forms evoke local collective memory by mirroring the silhouette of traditional beach cabins. In addition to its gabled roof, the design’s most prominent feature is its vertical wood cladding. The combination of form and material references the coastal landscape, creating a sense of continuity between the residence and the shoreline.

Openness and privacy

The design carefully balances the relationship between the building and its context, weighing outward-facing opennessagainst the need for privacy and introspection. While the street-facing elevation is closed and shielded for privacy, the garden side opens toward the outdoors to create a tranquil space. With trees, shrubs, and a lawn, the garden is integrated into the architectural design and extends toward the entrance. The entrance itself is off a small courtyard with a patio and specimen tree. Defined by contrasts between smooth white walls, the natural texture of a wood-lined soffit, and loose gravel, the space forms a threshold between the interior and exterior.

Minimalist, context-sensitive interiors

The design language of the exterior carries through to the interiors, which balance minimalism with a welcoming warmth. Natural light, filtered through external screens, enhances the spaces by modulating the tones of the furnishings and surfaces throughout the day.

An FSC-certified timber frame and natural insulation provide the foundation for the home’s energy efficiency. By combining these assemblies with an energy recovery ventilation system, the project achieves the highest Italian nZEB rating of A4, ensuring indoor comfort combined with rigorous sustainability standards.

The significance of an urban fragment

According to the architects, this small work of architecture is an attempt “to restore significance to an urban fragment without yielding to nostalgia or pure linguistic abstraction. We viewed the shoreline and its lightweight structures as a lexicon for a new beginning. We translated these elements into an essential, restrained building that is contemporaryyet anchored in collective memory.”

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