The building melds with its environment, the three concrete levels slotted into the hillside and surrounded by natural vegetation and green lawns. The first level contains the garage and a bedroom suite. The main living areas are on the two upper floors: a long, linear structure resting on the ground, its solid rear wall backed up against the sloping terrain, and a jutting third-level wood structure, open on all sides.
The underlying programme of this architectural project is the building’s constant rapport with its natural surrounds. The interior is for use only at night and during bad weather. Every room - set in linear sequence - gives on to a pergola-covered forecourt - even the bathrooms. To achieve this, traditional distribution arrays have been discarded and the corridor placed at the rear. The main entrances open into the dining and living rooms. The master bedroom is set apart, while the living area separates the guest room from the children’s bedrooms. The metal frame pergola with a lightweight cane covering runs along the main façade, providing shelter from the summer sun and a useable outdoor area during the winter. The wooden decking outside the house denotes the external “living” areas, and links house and swimming pool. The upper level, jutting at right angles to the level below, creates a protected veranda in front of the kitchen and dining room. The solid rear wall, floor and ceiling are in concrete while partition walls are plasterboard. A distinctive architectural feature is the outer wall cladding in local stone, held in place by a welded mesh. Windows frames are in natural colour aluminium while the external doors are zinc galvanized steel, with pinewood panels. The dining room tables and chairs are designed for in- and outdoor use. With time, the roof will be completely covered by spontaneous vegetation, rosemary and sorghum, becoming a natural extension of the hillside above.
The pines and oaks in the garden create continuity with the natural landscape while the sculptured lawn has flowering shrubs and plants all year round. In the heavy footfall areas, on the slope and in front of the bedrooms and living area, a hardy, slow-growing grass variety has been sown. Near the house, the swimming pool - clad with porous Banyoles rocks - is surrounded by ancient oaks.

Francesco Pagliari