It's not a newly built design, but absolutely brilliant all the same.

These award winning 'Microcoasts' by Guallart Architects were constructed along the coast of Vinaròs, Castellón in Spain and completed in 2007.

Vinaròs is about halfway between Barcelona and Valencia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, and therefore has the perfect climate for enjoying a little time sunbathing by the sea.

Or not.

Because much of its south shore is a succession of coves and promontories on a terrain composed of strata of easily fractured conglomerate rocks.

Or in other words, a beautiful natural landscape, lots of sunshine, but very uncomfortable rocks to lie on.

So, Vinaròs City Council, Generalitat Valenciana and the Tourism Ministry commissioned a solution from Guallart Architects who came up with this beautiful series of geometric wooden platforms which do little damage to the rock below and provide comfortable social spaces to enjoy the environment from.

The platforms are composed of just two different pieces, one flat, the other with a microtopography, which serve to generate surfaces that can be perfectly flat or partially or fully folded.

According to Guallart they were an instant hit:

"Their positioning on the coast is determined by criteria of access to the sea and interaction with the dynamic line of the original coast. Following their installation, people were quick to appropriate the new micro-coasts and utilise them in a variety of ways."

On a local tip - much of M.E.'s home island of Malta has the same beach landscape but we've never seen such a lovely solution here yet...

Photographs © Nuria Diaz, Laura Cantarella.