Fran Silvestre Arquitectos Creates “a House on Air, Walking on Water”
An almost Renaissance-like sweetness pervades the sensibility of the minimalist architect Fran Silvestre Arquitectos.
Gorgeous pure space.
(Here’s another pleasingly minimal pure space from this architect.)
Beginning with “an abrupt plot of land overlooking the sea,” he decides “what is best is to do nothing, constructing a house on air, walking on water…”
To minimize the earthworks, the house soars over its rocky landscape.
Only the parking area behind the house and the swimming pool below are on two narrow stretches of flattened land.
The back of the house is rooted in bedrock.
From the garage, the house is entered at the high point where it meets the steep cliff.
Bathrooms are anchored into the cliff wall along the back of the house.
The front of the house calmly regards the vast ocean vista.
The swimming pool becomes a quiet cove on the cliff across from the mountain’s craggy peak.
A cliff top platform is sheltered and sunny.
All the reinforced concrete is covered with a white lime plaster.
White predominates inside as well.
The audacious engineering of the structure gives the house a nonchalant air.
Across from the gigantic mysteries of nature, the majestic space under the house is punctuated by the simplest hole in the wall letting in the sky.
Because the house is narrow, it makes a walking view available from the kitchen in back…
…which has to be the most minimal kitchen ever!
These cabinets open up to reveal the stove etc.
The square window at the far end of the great room is that single iconic window that is seen above the stairs to the pool.
What seemed to be a huge cube is just a facade.
A frame for the sky.
December 22nd, 2012 at 10:16 pm
Sterile. More than Steve Job's Yacht; this could have been based upon that boat.