/ •
'Deemed 'just too big' by
Living Architecture,
Zumthor's original
proposal (this page) was
significantly larger -
and, perhaps more
problematically, more
difficult to build and
therefore more
expensive. The project
was granted planning in
2011 before the Swiss
architect was asked to
revise the drawings.
In the built proposal
(opposite) two bedroom
wings grow out of the
tall, multi-faceted
central living space
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dissolving in front of an uninterrupted
panorama of soft-edged hills. With local
aggregates poured into the mix in an
attempt to absorb t he surrounding
landscape, t he castle-thick walls and stout
pillars of hand-rammed con crete evidence
the laborious manual process - to each day
a wobbly joint. The floor is composed of an
irregular pattern of limestone paviours,
each unique in size, meticulously tessellated.
Raw in its materiality, the house is
impeccable in its execution.
Whether they m ark t he apotheosis of
a style (think Fallingwater, Villa E -1027
and F arnsworth House), or the r adical
departure of an established language
(think Adolf Loos's anachronistically
alpine Khuner Villa), weekend retreats and
vacation homes have proved to be some
of t he most experimental and extravagant
houses designed by ar chitects - not always
without tribulations, but isn't t hat the
ineluctable concomitant of explorative
and innovative pursuits~
Throughout its hist ory, architecture
has b een heavily r eliant on wealthy clients
and ambitious patrons who aspired to see
th eir ideas materialised into the world.
In Antiquity, Roman emperor Iladrian
conceived of masterpieces such as t he
Pantheon as a triumphant display of his
will and beneficence - still the largest
dome ever built with unreinforced con crete.
As the industrial r evolution sparked an
unpi'ecedented increase in wealth in t he
19th century, business magnates became
philanthropists and funded spectacular
public buildings through a sense of moral
and social duty. The global economy has
significantly hindered t hese ambitions,
and buildings ar e now mostly required to
be financially profitable. Our system of
values has shifted, and it is perhaps no
surprise to see architecture becoming the
stuff' of collections and exhibitions, seeking
r efuge in t h e arms of alternative institutions,
finding comfort in artistic enterprises.
A year after Zumt h or's house started
on site, a wander in and around t he 1:1
architectur al installation s exhibited at
London's Royal Academy for Sensing Spaces
prompted Fren ch real estate developer
Christian Bourdais and Spanish ar t
producer Eva Albarran to mastermind
the 'first architecture collection in Europe',
a project that has evolved to both resemble
and move away from Living Architecture.
Rather than being dispersed across hilly
fields and salty coastlines and compiled into
a national inventory of holiday hideouts,
the pair's brainchild Solo Houses includes
a con centration of h oliday retreats in
the untarnished wilderness of secluded
Matarraiia, a mountainous r egion of r ed
rocks and green oaks in eastern Aragon,
bordering t he Spanish r egions of Valencia
and Catalonia. 'The compromises necessary