Casa Loredo: landscape as architecture, a project by Zooco Estudio

Located on an elongated plot facing the Cantabrian Sea, with sweeping views over the Bay of Santander, Casa Loredo by Zooco Estudio stands as a work that not only contemplates the landscape but weaves it into its very fabric. It is the second project in the New Vernacular Architecture of the Cantabrian Sea (NAVC) series, an initiative exploring the possibilities of reinterpreting traditional construction techniques through a contemporary, critical lens.

In a time when regulations often impose forms inherited from the past, NAVC advocates for an architecture that respects tradition without succumbing to nostalgia. In this context, Casa Loredo is a manifesto: a home that engages with its surroundings through material honesty, formal clarity, and climatic adaptability.

A house gazing at the sea

More than a residence, Casa Loredo is a lookout. The project has been conceived as a lived-in window to the landscape, where pine trees, holm oaks, and the Cantabrian Sea frame a deeply sensory domestic experience. The architecture opens generously to the northwest through large glazed surfaces, visually and emotionally blending with the natural environment.

Material with memory

The selection of materials responds to a philosophy rooted in authenticity and connection to place. The limestone masonry, crafted using artisanal techniques, gives the structure a textured, timeworn quality that grounds it firmly in its territory. In contrast to the solidity of the stone, wood features in ceilings and construction details, bringing warmth and a seamless continuity between inside and out.

The interplay between mass and lightness, between the stone walls and glass panels, allows the home to breathe, to orient itself, to shelter — but also to express itself with its own voice within the landscape.

Building from the context

The Cantabrian climate — intense, humid, and ever-changing — has been a defining factor in the design. The house responds with passive strategies: porches, patios, and eaves that soften the impact of wind and rain, creating spaces of transition and refuge.

The L-shaped floor plan organizes the program into two distinct yet complementary wings. The first, oriented east to west, houses the communal areas and the master bedroom. The second, arranged north to south, accommodates guest rooms. This layout not only optimizes functionality but also offers a framed view of the sea from the entrance itself, underscoring the concept of a landscape-house.

Reinterpreted identity

At Casa Loredo, every design move seeks to forge a bridge between vernacular tradition and contemporary living. There is no mimicry or literal reproduction, but a thoughtful reinterpretation: materials steeped in history assembled into an architecture that is light, open, and attentive.

The result is a home that feels inherently part of its place. An architecture that does not impose, but accompanies. That does not replicate, but reinvents. And that finds in the constructive memory of the Cantabrian region a fertile language for the present.

Project: Casa Loredo NAVC01.
Architecture: Zooco Estudio.
Team: Miguel Crespo Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito, Sixto Martín Martínez.
Collaborator: Paula Cruz.
Location: Santander.
Completion: 2024.
Construction: Coboman.
Lighting: Zooco Estudio.
Lighting: Zooco Estudio.
Photography: David Zarzoso.

Zooco Estudio, timeless architecture for a world in motion

Founded in 2009 by Miguel Crespo Picot, Javier Guzmán Benito, and Sixto Martín Martínez —architects trained at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM)— Zooco Estudio has built a trajectory that moves effortlessly across scales, from major architectural works to the meticulous design of furniture. Guided by a philosophy that is both rigorous and open, their architecture embraces a timeless, clean, and essential language, deliberately distanced from artifice and fleeting trends.

With offices in Madrid and Santander, Zooco develops projects both nationally and internationally. Diverse in programs and scales, their work is bound together by a common thread: the constant pursuit of tailored solutions, conceived as specific and enduring responses. Each project becomes an opportunity for exploration, where creativity converges with functionality and technical precision.

In just over a decade, the studio’s work has garnered wide recognition, with more than fifty projects published in specialized media across the globe. Their trajectory has also been honored with prestigious awards such as the Design Vanguard 2019, NAN Construcción Awards 2019 and 2020, Frame Awards 2020, and the European 40 Under 40 2020. More recently, Forbes included Zooco among the 100 most creative Spaniards in the world of business, highlighting their ability to think and build beyond the obvious.

Zooco’s approach transcends the scale of the commission: they bring the same creative ambition to a small design object as to a large architectural project. They understand design as a strategic and commercial asset, capable of contributing to the success of a business by endowing it with a strong, distinctive spatial identity. From the earliest ideas to final execution, they accompany their clients throughout the entire process, advising on every aspect that shapes the quality of the outcome.

In a context dominated by speed and obsolescence, Zooco champions an architecture rooted in spatial solutions that, rather than yielding to passing fashions, project themselves into the future, preserving their relevance and value over time.

Fuente: Zooco Estudio.

Project by Zooco Estudio