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12 Swoon-Worthy Beach Houses

Summertime means summer vacations and trips to the beach. Imagine if you lived at the beach all year long or could escape there anytime you wanted in one of these 12 swoon-worthy beach houses? Sit back, relax, and imagine that one of these places was yours…

06.10.14 | By
12 Swoon-Worthy Beach Houses

New York City based Steven Harris Architects takes advantage of the drop-dead stunning views and tucked Casa Finisterra into the cliff right above the Pacific at the southern point of the Baja Peninsula in Cabo San Lucas.

Photo by Bruce Damonte

Photo by Bruce Damonte

Craig Steely built Lavaflow 5, a Hawaiian getaway on 30 acres of secluded land and the steel frame offers a varying opacity that goes from open, to glass, to a screen, to completely solid, all overlooking the Hamakua coastline.

Photo © Gray Organschi Architecture

Photo © Gray Organschi Architecture

The Seaside House is located on New York’s Shelter Island and is the part-time home to designers Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan. Designed by Gray Organschi Architecture, the home’s shape creates a series of courtyards, like this one that houses the pool.

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Photo by Juan Solano

Designed by Vértice Arquitectos, this house in Lomas del Mar beach in Cerro Azul, Peru, has all kinds of cantilevered action going on, including the long rectangular pool that juts out and overlooks the beach.

While the interior of the AL Rio de Janeiro house, by Arthur Casas, might be clean and contemporary, the exterior is clad in a peach/gray/beige stone that’s similar to the stone at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Besides an inviting pool and views of the popular granite dome, Pedra da Gávea, the estate has unbelievable ocean views.

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Photo by Simon Devitt

Located in Takapuna Beach, New Zealand, the Takapuna House, by Athfield Architects, is clad in wood that helps provide privacy. On the top floor that faces the water, there are framed panels that slide back and forth to open the space up or make it feel more closed off.

Perkins Architects designed this family beach house along the coastal waters of St Andrews Beach, about 90 km from the center of Melbourne, Australia. The rugged landscape offers the perfect backdrop for the rustically modern home that they built, which features a living room where two sides open up letting the ocean breezes pass right through.

Photo by Eric Laignel

Photo by Eric Laignel

West Chin Architects, a New York City firm, built The Sea located in Long Beach, New York. With a wraparound deck on the second floor surrounded only in glass, and a massive, 26′ wide garage-style door that opens the living room up, this house has plenty of places to enjoy unobstructed views of the ocean.

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Located on the Victorian coastline of Australia, this beach house, designed by John Wardle Architects, is covered in a zinc cladding that works right along with the natural landscape. The series of volumes make a point to focus your eyes on the ocean below.

Photo by Nelson Kon

Photo by Nelson Kon

The Paraty House, by Studio MK27, is located in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the house is made up of two elongated rectangular boxes made of exposed concrete that protrude out from the rough terrain of the Brazilian coast. A smaller foundation floor sits beneath the main larger floor which has floor-to-ceiling windows the entire length of the house.

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Following the gentle slope of the terrain, the Bundeena House by Clark Pearse Architects is built low following along with the other coast houses in Bundeena near Sydney, Australia. A large, cantilevered balcony hangs over the rocky plot of land and offers plenty of sun protection.

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The Jellyfish House might look like a lot of white concrete, but it has forms with curves and geometric angles that make it incredibly appealing. Built right on the coast of Spain in Marbella, the house was designed by Wiel Arets Architects with an incredible cantilevered, glass-bottomed pool on the top floor that has stunning views of the ocean.

Which one would you want to spend the summer at?

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.