4 Porches and 4 Skylights House by Ferran Vizoso
Located on the Spanish island of Menorca, this modern contemporary single family residence was designed in 2013 by Ferran Vizoso.
Description by Ferran Vizoso
The clients asked for a house that had to be close from the outside but open from the inside. Had to have introverted facades, to maintain the privacy of their adjacent plot, but at the same time generous views towards all its carefully landscaped perimeter.
Four triangular porches solved the paradoxical demand due to the “inverted funnel effect” of their walls, a shape able to simultaneously offer wide views from the inside and massive facades from the outside. The solution “dislocated” the geometry of the whole plan and generated very rich visual relations in between the house and the garden.
When the big sliding doors are open, hided into the walls, the four triangular outdoor areas connect each other and the interior becomes one only great porch, a big shadow in between four intimate “pavilions” (the three bedrooms and the sitting room) with the constant presence of the changing daylight and the garden views.
In the bathrooms, through triangular skylights with mirrors on two of their three sides, the sun light descends causing surprising kaleidoscopic reflections. With all this, the residence becomes a comfortable and protected “interior” not being “in front of” or “by the” nature, but absolutely surrounded by it.
- by Matt Watts
