Camí de Beliacs House

This house stands on a plot of 2,548m² divided into four strips of land separated from each other by thick dry-laid stone walls, known locally as “feixes”.  These strips had previously been farmland, accessed from the Camí dels Beliacs, and formed a terracing of the natural terrain, although with little difference in level between them.

It seemed reasonable to locate the new house on the highest portion of land, at the northern end of the plot, from where the views over the vegetation could be recovered until the sea could be seen, leaving the rest of the “feixes”, the strips of cultivated land, free of buildings.

Owing to the geometry and orientation of the plot, it was decided to build a volumetry that would extend across the width of the plot, reaching the building limit authorised by the regulations on the east and west sides. This layout allowed each one of the pieces that form part of the housing programme to face south.

In order to achieve a less monolithic volume and to give some independence to some of the rooms, it was decided to include a green courtyard that separated the house into two parts. This in turn allowed us to organise the rooms in a more organic way, as it was necessary to circulate around the outside to reach some of them.

Thus, at one end we have the main two-storey volume, which contains the common areas on the ground floor and two bedrooms with their respective bathrooms on the first floor. At the other end, the master bedroom with its bathroom. Both volumes are separated by the courtyard, which is not only the natural route to reach the master bedroom from the common areas, but also gives access to the basement where the machine room, pantry and laundry room are located.

A green pergola in front of the south façade finishes off the elevation by creating a shaded route, so necessary in summer, from which each of the ground-floor rooms can be accessed.

There is a small construction detached from the main one, on a different scale and using another cladding material, stone, which is connected to the rest by means of the walls and a courtyard shared with one of the ground-floor rooms. This construction is located in the intermediate “feixa”, closer to the swimming pool located on the southernmost strip of land.

A series of outdoor spaces, so necessary and appreciated in the summer months, meeting places for large groups of friends and family, are distributed in the western end of the plot, from where the common areas inside the house are easily accessed.

While the south façade, although predominantly walled, can be considered as a façade open to the landscape, the north façade is completely blind. While in one, the south, a continuous lime mortar-based cladding is used, in the other, the north, marés blocks are used to accentuate its opacity or airtightness and to make evident the ageing of the noble material which, with time, gains in beauty.

The swimming pool has its own space in the strip of land at the southern end, so that it is not eternally present. Surrounded by vegetation and stone walls, it can only be seen from specific points of the house.