The same search continued through the design of houses. The existing ones were no longer enough: new developments promised, at least in their ideal form, a different kind of landscape, where views, local memory and an international outlook could coexist. The results were mixed. The reborn Italian coast would not escape the damage wrought by development, but these projects remain evidence of another way of living.

At Arenzano, near Genoa, this idea takes on an almost urban dimension. La Pineta, planned and designed by Ignazio Gardella and Marco Zanuso and later joined by architectural gems by Ponti, Magistretti and Caccia Dominioni, brings together houses, a hotel, services and communal spaces. The development suggests a sense of community while also carefully shaping the experience of the landscape and the sea, filtered through openings in the built fabric and framed by slate parapets or massive red architectural forms. A little further west, at Torre del Mare, Mario Galvagni designed everything, from the masterplan down to the window, for another new settlement perched on a promontory. Here, the geometry of houses engages with the forms of the rocks as they descend towards the water.