The Spaces

Welcome to the latter half of the summer, a time when galleries across Europe are vying for your attention. From body art at Tate Modern in London to the takeover of a 500-year-old Venetian institution, August offers many excuses to plan a cultural getaway. Here are five standouts.

PHDD Arquitectos has designed a three-building estate that reinterprets the traditional Alentejo monte on almost three hectares of protected countryside near Melides. The fully approved project is being offered together with the land, allowing work to move directly into the engineering, execution drawings and construction phases.

In the Provençal village of Barjols, this 19th-century house has been restored across two distinct periods, preserving its original character while adapting to modern life. Set within a 2,065sqm site, the property spans 455sqm with seven bedrooms.

For a certain type of aficionado, it is nigh on impossible to imagine a time before ‘design’, when furniture mostly hearkened back to a humbler past and furniture-making hewed to convention. Jean Royère, a décorateur ensemblier from Paris, reimagined modest meubles as big, bold centrepieces. His flair for swooping, sinuous lines and gem tones changed the direction of modernism and added a powerful, playful point of view to interior design.

A former cattle shed has been transformed into a private library at Stanbridge Mill Farm, an 18th-century mill house in Dorset. Designed by Crawshaw Architects, the room is structured by a sequence of curved oak frames, positioned in reference to the cattle stalls that once occupied the building. Bookshelves run between them, while three rooflights bring daylight through the barrel-vaulted ceiling. The project won the RIBA South West & Wessex Regional Small Project of the Year award in 2022.

One of Jávea’s most scenic coastal neighbourhoods is the setting for Casa Garrofer, a 320sqm home that draws on the architecture of the traditional Ibizan finca while introducing a contemporary approach to space. The four-bedroom villa was completed to Passivhaus standard, and combines whitewashed walls with timber beams and natural stone. Its light-filled interiors open directly onto gardens and terraces.

From the desks of poets to the drawing boards of revolutionaries, the writing desk has long been a site of contemplation and intellectual independence. Today, with work moving into the home, a proper desk feels more vital than ever. These spaces are not simply functional; they offer a personal sanctuary for deep thought and creation.

Behind a monolithic plaster façade in Tulum, Mexico, Casa Terra unfolds through a sequence of parallel walls, planted courtyards and skylit living spaces. Designed by Madrid-based Erentia Arquitectos, the five-bedroom house turns inward, drawing daylight and tropical planting into almost every room. The house is on the market for US$1.585 million.

A steady wave of listening bars reshaped how we experience a drink. Now restaurants are catching up. Across London, restaurateurs are creating spaces built around vinyl and high-fidelity sound, where records are curated like wine lists and DJs set the tone for the evening.

Set within the carriage entrance of a 19th-century building in Bordeaux, this 146sqm apartment was redesigned in 2019, preserving many of the original architectural details before listing at €1.19 million. Marble fireplaces, decorative mouldings, gilded ceiling medallions and original wrought iron sit alongside exposed Bordeaux stone, polished-concrete floors and raw travertine. The 2019 renovation introduces contemporary materials without losing sight of the apartment’s original character.