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Glorious Mediterranean Vista from Spain’s Intriguing AA House

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MVN Architects tucked the AA house into a coastal hillside overlooking the azure vastness of the Spanish ocean.

The client’s brief was that you would have the feeling of the horizon of the vast Mediterranean Sea as part of the house.

The architect met the brief. This is a house that does nothing to get in the way of the vast horizon.

The house is sited on a small natural platform on the hillside, minimising earthmoving, and protecting the landscape value of the stunning ocean views.

Surprisingly simple and compact, it houses a family, guests, and to the left, a small sauna, workshop for sculpture and painting, and courtyard for drying and storage of parts.

Initially, looking past the parking area towards the entrance to the right of the wall that contains the single tall tree, no clue is offered of the view.

But behind the shell of that wall – because the dining room is glassed in – the aesthetic goes from plain/blocked to a blast of intimate/open view.

The innermost of the two sliding walls is glass, and the outer one is an external sliding insect screen for mosquito season.

Above the house is a roof deck that is completely open – with only the top of the double height living room on this level.

As you ascend the stairs to the roof deck,  you can see down into the living room.

The sense of the huge sky and sea view is enhanced by the central living space being double height. The interior woodwork is pre-laquered mdf, with wood.

A pool on the side deck, outside the sauna, allows for contemplative immersions.

Sliding shutters keep the interiors cool for afternoon siestas.

Below the house, the terracing continues, making strips of garden for a fruit orchard.

Altogether an intriguing and unusual response to a stunning view.

On the site there exists a small platform, which will be used as base for the building. The project had to answer two questions raised by Two, develop a housing program for a marriage with two children, according to the following needs: garage and kitchen; lounge dining room and office-library; main room, rooms for the children and guests;

The housing is organized into three bands that are displaced longitudinally: The services band, partially buried, anchoring the house on the slope. It organises the uncovered parking, court of service, pantry and kitchen, the latter with a small terrace. The central band receives the main elements of the house. On having been delayed with respect to the other two, it sets up a large patio where is proposed the access, protected behind the fold of the walls. Once inside, a small patio glass distributes the routes, introducing a diffuse light sifted by vegetation.

The main double-height space articulates the relationship between the light and the horizon. Dining and living room establish a strong link with the sea, opening fully on a first platform that starts the dialog with the environment. This space is bounded by the dressing room and the main bedroom, which configure a cantilevered body over the visual flight of the landscape, again toward the coast line. The third band is the closure of the housing and its main facade. It includes rooms for the children, the guest room, the sauna, and the space for sculpture and painting, with a courtyard protected from the wind. A somewhat lower terrace provides an open space at noon, resolving the encounter with the ground.

The whole set is proposed as structural system of reinforced concrete, with Thermo-clay closure and solution of ecological flat roof supported by slab Filtron base. It is projected to finished with white monolayer mortar (with contribution of 10% of ochre) according to the architecture built in the area of influence of the Cerro del Albar. The pavement is solved with travertine marble, extending this finish to the outside to run ground platforms linked to the use of housing. In wet rooms and kitchen it is used compound of quartz and resins type Silestone to run tiled pavements.