Solenne twenty-two houses above the bay of Altea
Altea, Costa Blanca
A south-facing hillside of pines,
limestone walls and long evenings.
Keys handed over
Spring 2027 — nine houses
still to be chosen.
terraces
Evening light on warm stone
Tonight the sun drops behind the Sierra at 21:05
Three things the hill
gave us for free
i.
The bay, framed
The hill falls away fast, so every house looks over the roof of the one below. Living rooms, baths and bedrooms all turn to the water, and a planning covenant keeps the view open for good.
Water view from every bedroom
Morning sun, evening shade
ii.
Few neighbours
Twenty-two houses on fourteen thousand square metres. Paths, not corridors; gardens, not car parks. You will know everyone by August and hear none of them.
One house per 640 m² of hillside
Cars kept below the olive grove
iii.
Cool in August
Walls half a metre thick, deep reveals and planted pergolas do what air conditioning pretends to. The stone holds the night's cool well into the afternoon.
50 cm limestone walls
Cross-ventilated rooms
Four houses
One hillside, four ways of living on it: low among the olives, high on the roofs, around a patio, or out over the pines.
22 homes in total
9 still to choose from
240m²
The garden
house
All on one floor, doors open to a walled garden and a plunge pool under the olives.
3–4 bedrooms · 6 of them
310m²
The roof
house
Top of the hill. A roof terrace with a summer kitchen and the whole bay to cook for.
3 bedrooms · 4 of them
160m²
The patio
house
Rooms wrapped around a shaded court and one old olive tree. Lunch never meets the wind.
2–3 bedrooms · 8 of them
140m²
The cliff
studio
A double-height room held out over the pines, with a strip of glass floor above the sea.
2 bedrooms · 4 of them
Of the hill
Almost everything you touch at Solenne was quarried, felled or grown within forty kilometres of the site.
- Walls Alicante limestone, hand-dressed
- Floors honed travertine, left unsealed
- Pergolas oiled chestnut, planted
- Gardens olive, rosemary, bougainvillea
stone on site
Close enough to walk down for bread, high enough to hear nothing but the pines
- 10′on foot to the
pebble coves - 12′up the steps to
the old town - 5′by bike to
the marina
Ten minutes
to the
old town
Two airports, one coast road
Alicante's runway is forty-five minutes south, Valencia's an easy morning north. The coast road passes at the foot of the hill, and the narrow-gauge tram still rattles along to the fishing towns.
a house
Door to door, by car
The coast, by the clock
- 0:45Alicante ✈
- 0:12Benidorm
- Solenne, Altea
- 0:15Calpe
- 0:35Jávea
- 1:40Valencia ✈
Seen from the Bernia ridge, 7 a.m.
The whole bay, and Solenne halfway up it
