10 stunning summer homes that are in harmony with nature

From a sleek dream home in the Costa Rican rainforest to a stone, cliff-top retreat in the wilds of Scotland, here are 10 summer retreats that are immersed in their surroundings.

What makes the ultimate summer home? For some it may be a tiny wooden cabin deep in a verdant, shady forest, surrounded by a chorus of birds. For others it would open up from the bedroom directly onto a stretch of flaxen sand, with rippling ocean waves just metres away.

A new book, Summer Houses by Izabela Anna Moren, features beautiful holiday dwellings across the globe, from buildings on stilts in the Costa Rican jungle, to a stone cottage perched on a Scottish cliff. What unites them is not just a nod to their surroundings, but architecture shaped by the environment. Each design draws logic, materials and form directly from the landscape – sustainability crafted in response to nature.

Here’s our pick of 10 retreats that are architecturally designed in harmony with geography and offering the perfect escape from everyday life.

1. Sinfonia Verde, Costa Rica

Inspired by the Osa Peninsula – a heavily forested region in southwestern Costa Rica – this house was designed as "a platform for experiencing the rainforest from the inside," architect Benjamin Saxe of Studio Saxe tells the BBC. The homeowners are keen biologists who enjoy observing nature, and the home's circular shape creates a 360-degree relationship with the surroundings, and offers stunning views of the forest canopy. Due to the sloping terrain it was partly built into the hillside, while also floating above it.

The parabolic roof manages the heavy rainfall, and is designed, "to behave like part of the ecosystem," explains Saxe. "In the rainforest, everything is interconnected, and we wanted the architecture to work in a similar way. The house is elevated to allow water, air and wildlife to continue moving naturally beneath it, minimising disruption to the terrain."

2. Mesaria Canava, Greece

An idyllic square of aquamarine water is perfectly positioned on the roof terrace of this traditional whitewashed home. With views across the island of Santorini to the Aegean Sea, this former 200-year-old subterranean wine cellar in Greece, once built for rural production, has been transformed by Kapsimalis Architects into a contemporary summer home. Interior vaulted rooms, underground cisterns and a terrace – previously used for storing and drying produce – have been preserved and repurposed.  It now provides cool, open-plan living with simple bleached walls, bridging history with modernity. 

3. The House Under the Ground, Netherlands

If you were walking along the lane beside a nature reserve in rural Dutch Eindhoven, you would barely notice this building tucked inside the bucolic landscape. Previously a shelter for goats, the home was designed........

© BBC