House on the slope. Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos
13/12/2018.
[Costa d’en Blanes, Calvià - Mallorca] Spain
metalocus, LUIS ANDRES DE JUANES
metalocus, LUIS ANDRES DE JUANES
The architecture studio Miel Arquitectos, lead by Elodie Grammont and Miguel Angel Borrás, was commissioned to design a detached house on an almost impossible slope of the Costa d'en Blanes with views over the entire Bay of Palma.
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia
Natural surroundings, axonometric view. Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos.
Program, axonometric view. Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos.
Materials, axonometric view. Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos.
First floor plan. Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos.
Ground floor plan. Forbes House by Miel Arquitectos.
The project designed by Miel Arquitectos provides the necessary horizontality in this seemingly impossible terrain. The project is practically invisible from the access street, where the roof becomes the fifth façade.
The program develops a complex and interesting game of spaces, turned towards the stunning views of the coast. Spaces to rest, to look, to take advantage of those spectacular views offered by the house.
The program develops a complex and interesting game of spaces, turned towards the stunning views of the coast. Spaces to rest, to look, to take advantage of those spectacular views offered by the house.
Description of project by Miel Arquitectos
Casa Forbes is a single house that looks boldly on a hillside of Costa d'en Blanes with views over the entire Bay of Palma. In the way in which the hanging gardens of Babylon built a domesticated natural environment, the Casa Forbes provides the necessary horizontality in this seemingly impossible terrain.
The outer enclosure of oblique steel slats cut kinetically sieves the landscape as you approach its entrance. After overcoming the bath of views that hides behind them, the vision escapes you towards the garden roof, a fifth façade that displays aromas and colors in concert with a paved solarium worthy of a glass of cava ... per day!
To enter the house you have to dive through a staircase that descends to the main floor where the living room, dining room, terrace and Mediterranean merge to the calm rhythm of the stone that surrounds it: slabs of calcareous stone, white mares stone de cas busso and a wall of gabions from which corten steel cylinders emerge landscaped.
As a host, the kitchen welcomes you with a large oak island to prepare and converse while slightly isolates the access to the main room from the social area. It is on this floor where the owners' house is housed, including their room - bathroom - dressing room, where awakening requires the absence of vertigo and one can shower with the sea in cinemascope.
On the opposite side of the floor, there is a lounge and dining room surrounded of terraces, a swimming pool and a vegetable and stone vertical garden.
The south terrace is hedonistic and exhibitionist, with glass railings to avoid any interference between the horizon and the house, even the pool has eyes towards the sea. On the other hand, the terrace to the north enjoys the intimacy that this stone-vegetal colossus of up to 5m high gives it, a wall that murmurs and listens.
The immersion to the lower floor is carried out by a slab with a spiral dug and a group of lenticchias lamps as a bank of jellyfish.
This last floor of the house is the gift of the owners to their family and friends, 3 en-suite bedrooms with a front terrace that will allow them to abstract from their reality while they can be your guests. On the buried side of this level are organized a warehouse, the wine cellar (tribute to the dispensers of photo reels), the machine room and the laundry with exit to the outside.
And on the outside, the reinterpretation of the Mediterranean forest that once stood on this hillside, born from an intact set of oaks, we extend corten steel stairs and compacted earth, draining gabion margins together with a combination of shrub and tree vegetation that support the restitution of the pre-existing forest.
This hanging garden is built with materials from the island, is powered by aerotermia reinforced with solar panels and controlled by home automation to get them to take a look at the sea, swim both in winter and summer, control their facilities at the touch of mobile and above all they feel Majorca in each of its corners.
More information
Architects
Miel Arquitectos. Lead architects.- Elodie Grammont & Miguel Angel Borrás.
Collaborators
Structure advisory.- Toni Casas. E&M engineering.- Eduard Rodriguez. Quantity Surveyor.- Carme Aguiló Mora. Landscape.- Daniela Sanchez & Antonio Zamora
Builder
Xarxa Homes
Materials
Intensive landscaping roof, calcareous stone pavements, underfloor heating, larch wood windows, automated aluminum blinds, double plasterboard partition walls, mares stone façades with ventilated air chamber or facade sheltered by Sate Baumit system and finished of mortar, taps Tres, toilets Villeroy Bosch / Duravit, Lighting of Viavizzuno, kitchen of Mobalco and Gaggenau, heated pool, air conditioning by aerotermia.
Area
654 m² habitable. Garden roof.- 158 m². Main floor.- 141 m² built + 110 m² terraces + pool Ground floor: 223 m² built + 22 m² front terrace frontal.
Dates
2015-2018
MIEL Architects
MIEL Arquitectos, directed by Elodie Grammont and Miguel Angel Borrás. They are a study based in Barcelona and Mallorca specialized in residential architecture (ranging from interior design to new buildings). Convinced that surprise is the best tool to rediscover the daily, they feed on the specifics of each client (goals, dreams and needs) and a healthy concern to innovate in each project.
They cultivate a special interest in the rehabilitation and interior remodeling, where they discover and give voice to certain energies remaining in the building and establish a dialogue with the new needs that allow them to redirect their entropy towards suggestive forms of enjoyment.
Since 2010 they have been in charge of the research project "Barcelona Architecture Walks", a tool for disseminating and analyzing Barcelona's architecture through the works of its Masters.
