The Residential Coast: From Cabanons to Grand Villas

Coastal residential architecture spans extraordinary range, from illegal shacks to palatial estates, each type reflecting different relationships with the sea and social hierarchies. The cabanon tradition around Marseille and the Mediterranean represents architecture at its most minimal—simple shelters for weekend escape, often built without permits on public land. These structures, theoretically illegal but culturally sacred, embody democratic access to coastal pleasures. Their modest scale and materials—salvaged wood, corrugated metal, found objects—create vernacular architecture of remarkable creativity.

At the opposite extreme, the grand villas of Cap d'Antibes, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and Biarritz represent coastal living as ultimate luxury. These properties, hidden behind high walls and security systems, privatize spectacular sites. Yet many contribute architecturally, employing leading architects to create innovative designs. Contemporary villas increasingly emphasize sustainability alongside luxury, with solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and native landscaping becoming status symbols alongside infinity pools.

Between extremes lies the vast middle of coastal housing: the pavilions of retired couples seeking sea air, the apartments in converted grand hotels, the renovated fishermen's cottages now worth fortunes. This residential development pressure transforms fishing villages into second-home communities, raises property values beyond local affordability, and challenges planners trying to maintain year-round communities. Architectural review boards struggle to balance property rights with community character, often producing compromised designs satisfying no one.

Social housing on the coast presents particular challenges. Land values make affordable development difficult, yet coastal communities need workers for tourism, fishing, and services. Innovative projects demonstrate possibilities: Bordeaux's social housing integrated into mixed developments, Marseille's rehabilitation of central city buildings for low-income residents, small communes' requirements for affordable units in new developments. These efforts recognize that architectural diversity requires economic diversity.