Following the sketchbooks of Le Corbusier and the writings of Fernand Braudel, the Mediterranean becomes the front scene of explorations, experiments and a sharp theoretical corpus planning for at least one century, nourishing the vocabulary of modern architecture and sowing the ground for an unprecedented touristic development impacting all coastal countries. The subject of touristic accommodation, will become the canvas where two opposing but yet cross-fed forces will claim legitimation: from the one hand, modern techniques and universal principles in construction and design and from the other hand, the eternal search of Human to a local belonging and uniqueness of identity. It is on this specific oscillation that the authors of this paper chose to focus a pedagogical experiment of in situ international workshops, having the aim to examine the conditions of production of modernism’s tourist accommodations in order to unveil potential parallels in the search of becoming of architectural heritage of 20th century. The paper draws on two case-studies, the Marina Grande of Vico Magistretti in Italy and the Xenia motel of Aris Konstantinidis in Greece, proposing the understanding of these architectures in a larger geographical context, forged by questions of reuse, integration in local urban fabrics, and valorisation of a common Mediterranean heritage. During two years, an international network of students in architecture and urban planning was structured and mobilized in order to propose a new framework of understanding and analysing the nowadays ruins. Both, standing in advantageous geographical locations, and in close connections to urban fabric and local economies, assumed for years their role as economic and leisure centralities before they left to decline. It is the subject of this paper to shed light to what can be a common narrative of these regionalistic architectures; from signature oeuvres of recognized architects, innovative after war touristic infrastructures celebrating technological achievements and triumph of free leisure time, but also complex ‘territories’ of governance and constructed imaginaries. The study draws on two years in situ workshops, held between four architecture Schools, the ENSA Paris-Malaquais, the ENSA Nantes, Politecnico di Milano and NTUA, and on debates with local stakeholders and municipalities. Forty students from three Mediterranean countries (France, Italy, Greece) met in Igoumenitsa and then in Arenzano to examine scenarios of reuse of these architectural edifices, and advance research on the theoretical challenges of their reintegration in a contemporary urban life. First insights show that although a shared vocabulary and sometimes societal context, these architectures propose a unique response to locality bypassing a straight reading of integration to the landscape, or vernacular pastiche and claiming a coherent position between modern functionality and site specific identity in the shape.