ITALIAN ARCHITECT IN BALI

Antonio Rutilio is an Italian architect based in Bali, specializing in luxury villas, resorts, and real estate developments across Indonesia and international destinations.

Bayahibe, La Altagracia, Dominican Republic — 2010

Residencial Casa Bella Caribe

Location: Bayahibe, La Altagracia, Dominican Republic
Year: 2010
Total Units: 42
Status: Completed
Client: Private Client
What we did: Architectural Design of the Complex and Apartment Layouts

A Caribbean Residential Courtyard in Bayahibe

Residencial Casa Bella, known today as Casa Bella Caribe, is a complex of 42 apartments designed by Antonio Rutilio in 2009–2010 for the new residential area of Bayahibe, the fishing village on the south-east coast of the Dominican Republic. Built between 2010 and late 2012, it arranges three low-rise apartment buildings around a shared courtyard with a free-form pool and hydromassage basin, a communal barbecue area and parking both inside and outside the plot. The centre of Bayahibe is about 200 metres away and the sea about 300 metres.

Architecture Gallery

Visual Narrative

Casa Bella Caribe — Pool Courtyard and Pastel Façades — Pool Courtyard and Pastel Façades

Casa Bella Caribe — The Courtyard from the White Building — The Courtyard from the White Building

Casa Bella Caribe — Pool and Hydromassage Basin — Pool and Hydromassage Basin

Casa Bella Caribe — The Courtyard from the Upper Balconies — The Courtyard from the Upper Balconies

The Vision

Dominican Colonial Language, Italian Rationality

The exteriors reinterpret Dominican colonial architecture in a contemporary key: ground-floor arcades with columns and round arches, continuous balconies with metal railings, external stairs and pitched roofs. Each section of the buildings is painted in a different pastel tone — yellow, sage green, pink and white — so the long façades read as a row of Caribbean houses rather than a single block. Inside, the 85 m² apartments follow an Italian rational plan: an open living and dining room with a fitted kitchen and peninsula, two bedrooms, a full bathroom and a furnished balcony overlooking the garden.

Casa Bella Caribe — The Pool Courtyard at Night — The Pool Courtyard at Night

Casa Bella Caribe — Free-Form Pool from Above — Free-Form Pool from Above

Casa Bella Caribe — External Stair and Arched Galleries — External Stair and Arched Galleries

Casa Bella Caribe — Shaded Balcony Gallery — Shaded Balcony Gallery

Casa Bella Caribe — Street Front — Street Front

Casa Bella Caribe — Open Kitchen and Dining Peninsula — Open Kitchen and Dining Peninsula

Casa Bella Caribe — Living and Dining Area — Living and Dining Area

The Lifestyle

Pool Courtyard and Tropical Garden

The three buildings frame a paved courtyard conceived as the social heart of the complex: a free-form pool with an attached hydromassage basin, sun loungers, a communal barbecue kitchen and a garden of endemic plants and palm trees in front of the ground-floor porches. Twenty of the apartments are managed as holiday rentals, so the courtyard serves both residents and visitors setting off on excursions to Saona Island and the Cotubanamá National Park.