Solo Houses, Cretas

About

This unique entity occupies a dominant position in a rural landscape of vineyards and olive groves, set against a background of medieval villages and rocky outcrops. A bare horizontal volume is detached from the ground, suspended in an almost archaic time. Transparent and monolithic, the building is balanced on top of a blind pedestal, so that its outline is divided between an elevated portion visible from afar and another that disappears behind native plant species. The aerial realm of the platform indicates the cardinal points. A panoramic perimeter ring punctuated by sixteen columns placed at regular intervals houses a sequence of rooms with undefined functions. These crystalline, symmetrical living spaces are independent and linked by four open terraces at their corners. The only closed room is not roofed; its four walls are perforated at their central point, while the floor is of water, reflecting the sky. After going along a sloping straight path, a bifurcated set of steps shapes the entrance; entering the house is like going into a twin tunnel around the pool, with small openings that allow glimpses of sky across the water. The volume unity has something of the generic schema about it; its monumentally risky structure disappears in the outlines of its mass.

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva