A Conversation with Arata Arquitectura on Estepona’s New Coastal Landmark

Tyrian Residences continues to advance on schedule, shaped by the collaboration between Prestige Expo Group, Grupo BZH and two architectural studios whose work defines the project’s identity: Yodezeen and Arata Arquitectura. In this feature, we highlight the perspective of Arata Arquitectura, the Málaga based practice responsible for Tyrian’s technical development and construction phase design.  

During a recent on site conversation, Moisés García, CEO of Arata Arquitectura, shared the principles guiding the project and the responsibility that comes with working on one of Estepona’s final prime seafront plots. His reflections underline Estepona’s current moment of transformation, a city defined by controlled growth, coherent urban planning and a coastline that increasingly favours thoughtful integration.  

García describes Tyrian as a development conceived to “break all ceilings”, a reference to its structural ambition and the intention to introduce a new architectural benchmark on the Costa del Sol. He explains how the building’s curved geometry, floating ground floor and cantilevered terraces required a bespoke engineering approach, supported by a series of structural beams designed to ensure visual continuity and unobstructed sea views for every residence.  

The interview also highlights the shared philosophy between Arata Arquitectura and Prestige Expo Group: clarity of purpose, disciplined execution and a commitment to architecture that endures. Each technical decision is aligned with long term performance, wellbeing and the coastal setting that gives Tyrian its character.  

With completion scheduled for H2 2026, the collaboration with Arata Arquitectura continues to play a central role in bringing this vision to life, reinforcing Tyrian’s position as Estepona’s new architectural landmark.

My name is Moisés García, and I am the person responsible for Arata Architecture, or the CEO, as they say nowadays, . We are currently developing the project you see behind me, which is Tyrian Residence in Estepona, Málaga.

It represented a very important challenge for us, especially in terms of integration. It is a plot, that within Estepona is, clearly emblematic. I believe it is the last or the second to last of those facing the sea.

It is almost the gateway from Marbella to the city, and that was marking the need to create an absolutely special project. The developers were also on the same page, and there was an agreement to make a product of the highest quality possible in Spain, even outside of Spain.

The most special feelings that the residents will experience, without a doubt, the first is the sense of privilege for the place they are in. Tyrian is something, I won't say unrepeatable, but it is not easy at all.

The position on the site, the air, the light, the relationship with the city, the relationship with the countryside, the relationship with other areas. We then reinforce all that. That is to say, you will have huge glass windows, huge terraces, technology that almost allows you to just think it and it happens.

In turn, with services so you can truly enhance and add value to your life. And on top of all that, with the possibility of becoming part of your city in just a few steps.

Tyrian has the vocation to break all ceilings. It is the exceptionality that at this moment is happening because Estepona is also breaking all its ceilings. What is happening to Estepona? Well, Estepona was for a long time, a very long time, with very little development. And, so, that has allowed it to be an extraordinary opportunity right now.

There is no sense of massiveness at any time, as it already has a vocation for integration, it already has a more or less pleasant architectural approach, there is no exaggerated density, no one builds crazy towers or things like that anymore. What happens then?

Moises Garcia ARATA Arquitectura Tyrian residences
That Estepona really is an opportunity. It's an opportunity not only for those who build but also for those who are going to live there. So, for me, as someone who loves Estepona and has been here for many years, I think it's a sweet moment, and Tyrian is going to be there.

The environment is essential in any architectural project. In this project even more so, because the environment enhances the project's own impact.

Here the environment is clearly dominated by the sea, but at the same time there is a street in front, the boulevard, there is a field and some green areas behind that are extremely important, there are other buildings… All of this ultimately creates the need to find a balance within the project to make it attractive, evidently.

Not only for commercial reasons, but also so that, over time and after many years, it ultimately becomes part of the city and part of what is intended.

The ordinance we have requires us to build a block-shaped building. We don't have the opportunity to make many changes, so we have to complement that compactness with rounded, smooth elements, using glass, with very deep terraces so that the facade is set far back.

And what we really see is a preliminary curtain with which we truly perceive the building. Along with the shadows that all of this will generate, in the end, it will allow the building to never give you the feeling of, as we say in Spain, a solid, impenetrable mass.

This is a perfectly penetrable building and very pleasant to live in. The structures are enormously large. The aim was for the building to float from the ground floor, so that the building gives a sense of lightness from any point of view.

That has resulted in us having twenty-meter-long post-tensioned beams, which do not exist in the residential world. What do we achieve with that? Well, these enormous beams support most of the columns, and the number of columns actually on the ground floor is minimized.  

All that so that, along with the vegetation that the ground floor will have, the sensation is that the building floats on a green cushion. That is somewhat the architectural goal that has been proposed. Within the architectural layout, the axis on the floor is marked by the position of the sea and the position of the field at the back.  

The sea, in the end, is creating a main view for the building. That required us to ensure that all the residences had sea views.  

To make that possible and avoid having apartments facing the back, and not create a situation of first-class or second-class apartments, it was decided to make apartments with a great width and the full depth of the building, which are two hundred fifty meters, two hundred forty meters, and so on, which is a very large apartment that accommodates all possible programs.  

And I think that all the expectation from anyone will be met.  

The other axis is vertical. Then, in addition, those vertical cores that allow access to the two apartments per floor are reinforced by a staff elevator. In total, we have four elevators for each of the five cores we have, which is also exceptional.  

There are even super garages for the main residences that have their own elevator directly to the penthouses. A building that almost aims to have, in addition to your residence, all the services of the best hotel in the world.  

What happens with that? It creates a huge need for engineering and technology. We have considered the most advanced techniques available nowadays, to construct the building.