Known for its idiosyncratic responses to space and material, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen (KGDVS) is the latest architecture firm to complete a Solo House in Spain, as part of luxury developer Christian Bourdais’ vision for an architectural resort.
The circular house allows nature to dominate in the most elegant way – architects Kersten Geers and David Van Severen wanted the architecture to be invisible and let the surrounding 1000 hectares of natural beauty in the Matarraña region of Spain feel overwhelmingly present.
The design is reductive yet intuitive. A concrete plateau is raised just above the terracotta-coloured earth which forms the base of the house and a roof, mirroring the plateau beneath it, sits on four rows of eight steel columns to form a pavilion. Sliding facades made of extruded aluminium and polycarbonate panes can be moved around the three ‘indoor’ segments, exposing the interior to nature or sheltering it from the elements.
Inside, concrete floors are combined with polycarbomate panels, glass, polished stainless steel doors and dyed wood ceilings
The architecture lays out a new geometric understanding of the concept of ‘home’ and muddles the boundaries of indoor and out. Through the design, Office KGDVS looked to explore, question and provoke, the bonds that we have with nature.
Framed at the centre of the circular form, is a piece of untamed landscape with a pool scooped out at one side. It is from the middle that one can experience the orbiting shapes on the roof that hold water tanks and generators. Painted by artist Pieter Vermeersch, these functional necessities are translated into sculptural objects.
Appealing to a generation of nomadic and experiential consumers, Bourdais’ plan is to create a hotel on the same site for archi-tourists in search of self-imposed isolation and the freedom to taste the creative concepts of international architects.
Painter Pieter Vermeersch worked on these sculptural forms containing the facilities.
It is not often that an architect is given carte blanche and a piece of land to play with. Three years ago, Chilean duo Mayricio Pezo and Sofia Von Ellrichshausen completed another house just a five-minute walk away the Office KGDVS house.
Carefully positioned within the landscape, the two houses are invisible to each other and the size of the land offers Bourdais many possibilities for the future of this architectural paradise.
The house is located in the middle of 1000 hectares of wilderness in the north-east of the Els Ports National Park, just over an hours drive from Reus airport.
The architecture lays out a new geometric understanding of the concept of ‘home’ and muddles the boundaries of indoor and out.
The roof is a rail for the extruded aluminium and polycarbonate curtain which slides around the exterior, encasing the concrete platform within or exposing it to the elements
Olive groves, almond tree fields and black truffles grow on the site which is surrounded by 18 medieval villages.
Office KGDVS commissioned designers Muller Van Severen to create this wire chaise longue.
The house is a stage from which to experience a 360-degree panorama of uninterrupted wilderness.
Office KGDVS are known for its theoretical approach to architecture.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Solo House website and the Office KGDVS website
-
Paris Ballet etoiles Hugo Marchand and Hannah O’Neill to perform at Paradise Art Night during Frieze Seoul 2025A dazzling fusion of dance and contemporary culture awaits as Paris Opera Ballet étoiles join forces with Paradise Art Night during Seoul’s biggest art week.
-
Capsule Retreat is a concrete home embedded with ‘texture, memory, and locality’East Architecture Studio offers a powerfully minimalist, highly textured home set among the coniferous forests of Mount Lebanon
-
Inside the fight to keep an iconic Barbara Hepworth sculpture in the UK‘Sculpture with Colour’ captures a pivotal moment in Hepworth’s career. When it was sold to an overseas buyer, UK institutions launched a campaign to keep it in the country
-
Meet Ferdinand Fillod, a forgotten pioneer of prefabricated architectureHis clever flat-pack structures were 'a little like Ikea before its time.'
-
A courtyard house in northern Spain plays with classical influences and modernist formsA new courtyard house, Casa Tres Patis by Twobo Arquitectura, is a private complex that combines rich materiality and intriguing spatial alignments
-
In Santander, a cotton candy-coloured HQ is a contemporary delightSantander’s Colección ES Headquarters, a multifunctional space for art, office work, and hosting, underwent a refurbishment by Carbajo Hermanos, drawing inspiration from both travels and local context
-
This Madrid villa’s sculptural details add to its serene appealVilla 18 by Fran Silvestre Architects, one of a trilogy of new homes in La Moraleja, plays with geometry and curves – take a tour
-
This striking Spanish house makes the most of a tricky plot in a good areaA Spanish house perched on a steep slope in the leafy suburbs of Barcelona, Raúl Sánchez Architects’ Casa Magarola features colourful details, vintage designs and hidden balconies
-
This brutalist apartment in Barcelona is surprisingly soft and gentleThe renovated brutalist apartment by Cometa Architects is a raw yet gentle gem in the heart of the city
-
A brutalist house in Spain embraces its wild and tangled plotHouse X is a formidable, brutalist house structure on a semi-rural plot in central Spain, shaped by Bojaus Arquitectura to reflect the robust flora and geology of the local landscape
-
Antoni Gaudí: a guide to the architect’s magical worldCatalan creative Antoni Gaudí has been a unique figure in global architectural history; we delve into the magical world of his mesmerising creations
