Casa de marés

Small in mass, but mighty in weight. This little vacation house, 5 minutes away from the Mediterranean, embodies the principles of the traditional local architecture: what carries and shelters, is stone. What spans or fills, is timber. And what you touch and move, is iron. This carries the spirit of the island into the anatomy of the architecture – a desired quality of a vacation refuge, where climate, mass and space need to form a unified whole.

The building was set to replace an existing garden shed to provide space for two people. The existing roof weathered well over the years and was perfectly integrated into the topography, so it was decided to keep it despite its slight double curvature. A small facade garden helps to settle the building in the garden, allowing it to participate in the larger picture.

In addition to their inherently low CO2 footprint, the materials also refer to the local resource map, harmonising with the landscape and maintaining local building knowledge. The self-carrying facade is made with Felanitx marés from a quarry close to the site. The wooden windows were designed in collaboration with a local carpenter to combine traditional profiles with modern insulation and air-tightness standards. Interior thermal mass is provided by the terrazzo floor made partly from discarded tiles, which was a collaboration with a local terrazzo maker.