Porto Montenegro, the glamorous new marina destination designed by ReardonSmith Architects, will be welcoming its first residents and visitors in July. Described as a “transformational” development for Montenegro, the phase completing this summer includes waterfront apartments and luxury residences, restaurants, cafés and first class berthing and associated marina facilities for superyachts and smaller craft.ReardonSmith was appointed in 2007 to masterplan, design and realise not only a premier destination for superyachts in Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor, but a small town that would attract land-based holiday makers and local people. Equally, the town was to be a practical location for crews to make their home when not at sea. Since then, the Bay has been transformed from the site of a decommissioned naval base to the beginnings of a world-class destination on the Adriatic coast. “Porto Montenegro is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious and significant projects on which we have had the privilege to work,” says Patrick Reardon, executive chairman of ReardonSmith. “It has certainly provided a unique platform for us to demonstrate our abilities on a broad scale and it is hugely rewarding to see the early fruits of everyone’s hard work being hailed as ‘the new Monaco’.”
The masterplan concept for Porto Montenegro combines the massing elements typical of historic towns in the region with the principles identified by the 20th Century urban planner, Kevin Lynch of “imagability”. Consequently, the design is respectful of location and architectural inheritance but is also entirely new; it contains familiar spatial relationships that will help visitors to instinctively navigate their way through the town and it holds intentional surprises to intensify the experience of discovery.
Many of the apartments completing this month have already been sold off-plan. They range in size from studios to exclusive four-bedroom residences, most with large terraces facing the sea, some with their own pool and all with a large first-floor landscaped courtyard complete with a pool deck. These form private oases where residents can bask in the sunshine and enjoy stunning views towards the marina, yet remain connected to their immediate locale thanks to the sounds from the narrow streets below.
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