Hotel House, Rationalist palace in Porto Recanati, Italy

Hotel House rises 17 floors above Porto Recanati and contains 480 residential units that shelter a significant portion of the town population. The concrete structure follows clean geometric lines and dominates the entire coastline of the small Adriatic town with its massive presence.

The construction took shape in 1968 during a phase of intense tourism development along the Adriatic coast and was originally meant to accommodate vacationers. The economic crisis of the 1970s transformed the project into permanent housing, which became occupied primarily by immigrant families.

The name comes from the tourist hotel originally planned here, which never opened as such; the apartments were instead let to low-income families, mostly of foreign origin since the 1990s. Today about 90% of the roughly 2,000 residents come from 40 different nationalities, and the population doubles in summer. The building has drawn sociological and anthropological studies and documentary films.

The building is visible from outside and shapes the harbor view, but the residential areas inside remain private and are not accessible to visitors. Those who want to experience the sight of the complex can do so best from the beach or the waterfront promenade.

In the 1970s the building served as a hideout and weapons depot for the Red Brigades' Marche committee, linked to Patrizio Peci. In April 2018 police found human remains in a well near the complex during a drug investigation; they belonged to a teenager who disappeared in 2010.