Porto Pino beach

Porto Pino is a fantastic beach in southern Sardinia, close to Sant’Anna Arresi. A competition has been launched for a sustainable touristic installation.

Our proposal is based on the anlysis of the existing “dune system”, one of the most important in the whole Mediterranean Sea. The new design acts as an artificial dune, retaining sand and preventing the beach from erosion. It totally desappears in the landscape while offering recovery for people and facilities.
The construction system is based on wooden frames that connect each other creating a series of little igloos. A special “wing” system is conceived as a sand retainer, in order to allow the new structure to be completely covered by sand outside, being hollow inside. These little pavillions can be dismounted during winter time to be re-mounted each season.
The competition asked for a participatory design. We thought to involve local communities in the design process thru a blog (http://portopinobeach.blogspot.com/) in which a series of survey help to shape the functional program for every year installation. In a few days, the community raised in facebook thru the blog reached more than a thousand people.

Porto Pino beach by cesare griffa in Italy won the WA Award Cycle 9. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.