a light resort by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Located along the mountainous coastline of Dhërmi, AlbaniaThe Veil by Ricardo Bofill Architecture Workshop suggests a resort that retreats into its surroundings. Designed under the direction of Pablo Bofill with design principals Hernán Cortés and Alborz Mohammadi, the project navigates a sensitive ecological context where dense deciduous forests meet the steep coastal terrain. Here, the architecture works with restraint, preserving the character of the site while minimizing disturbance.
Spread over two plots, the development includes 366 apartments and 77 villas organized into sixteen typologies. Rather than reshaping the land through excavation, this dense but permeable fabric of green volumes rising between existing trees and opening to the Adriatic Sea follows existing contours, settling on platforms that follow the natural slope. This strategy allows the constructed fabric to be read as a continuous, light layer across the ground, a “veil” that lightly touches the ground and adapts to its irregularities.
all images courtesy of Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
the veil shapes that live within the contours of the Albanian forest
A network of paths and steps emerges from a base of locally sourced stone, calibrated to match the tones of the surrounding landscape. Four color variations, derived from on-site samples, define the continuity between architecture and terrain. The Barcelona-based architecture studio retains existing trees where possible and leaves vegetation largely undisturbed, reinforcing the project’s low-impact approach.
Within this horizontal framework, buildings rise vertically between the trees to capture views of the Adriatic Sea. Generous windows, terraces, balconies and private pools extend the living spaces outwards, giving the resort a porous and open character. The volumes vary in size and configuration but remain visually coherent through a common palette of concrete and glazed ceramic tiles that reflect light and shadow.
At the heart of the development, which is currently under construction, a main communal building houses a social club, restaurant, gym and a series of swimming pools. Its central courtyard deviates from the otherwise rectilinear logic of the project, gently bending around a cluster of centuries-old trees.
pedestrian volumes walk along the steep coastline
Locally sourced stone defines traffic routes and mediates between architecture and terrain
clusters of villas follow the terrain
