The architect of Formentera Marià Castelló manages to reflect the soul of the island in all his projects.

We present a new project by Formentera architect Marià Castelló. As he himself comments, the peace, austerity, serenity, precision, humility, balance, harmony, sustainability, order, containment and ingenuity, typical of the island’s original character, inspire and colour his work, which we deeply admire. Castelló develops his projects with a talent that allows him to give the houses he designs a soul, which they all breathe and which the people who live in them undoubtedly enjoy. We let him describe his project to us.

Es Pou de Can Marianet Barber is a historic place name in the interior of the island of Formentera. A rural plot where several pre-existences condition the insertion of this small first residence in the territory. Prominent among them are the network of century-old dry stone walls and the organisation of the crops. The intervention is located in the western part of the plot, parallel to a track more than a kilometre long, facing south and protected from the western sun by a mass of vegetation, thus freeing up the most fertile area to give continuity to the existing agricultural activity.

The proposal is fragmented into three volumes, which organise the programme while giving it a smaller grain in keeping with the scale of the landscape. From south to north, the first body houses a porch that offers solar protection, the second contains the more public programme and the third two bedrooms. Between them are transversal strips that physically separate the volumes, providing them with ventilation and lighting as well as services and connections.

Delante de la vivienda se ubica un aljibe que la hace autosuficiente en términos de abastecimiento de agua a la vez que ofrece un solárium para los meses más fríos del año.

From the interior and through the porch we discover deep perspectives towards the flat landscape of wheat and oat fields, where the soft, warm colour of the earth and the muted greens of the almond and fig trees predominate. The light, colour and material of the exterior are brought into the interior of the house by ceramic and wood, two noble materials that are combined in a subtle and timeless way.

The warmth of the earth is transferred to the ceiling and floors, resolved by means of Mallorcan-type ceramic vaults and pressed terracotta tiles. The tiles are also used to resolve various other elements, such as façade cladding, roof finishes, the headboard of the master bedroom, or pebble gravel, processing in situ the waste from the ceramic elements used. The freshness associated with the colour of the vegetation predominates in the wet areas, where some vertical walls are clad with vitreous ceramic tiles in a diluted green colour and identical dimensions to the rest of the pieces. The light is filtered into the interior through ceramic lattices, generating a constant flow of light and shadow.

The coherence and material harmony has led to the use of white vitrified porcelain electrical mechanisms to integrate the installations in singular places such as the headboard of the master bedroom, as well as other more common ones such as lamp holders and sanitary ware. Also designed specifically for this project are a set of luminaires and special pieces handcrafted with formwork made in our studio, seeking their chromatic and dimensional integration in the context of the cladding.

Most of the furniture has been custom-designed and integrated into the architecture itself, while icons such as the Torres Clavé armchair, dating from 1934, or the traditional Formentera chairs pay homage to the tradition of Mediterranean craftsmanship. Other more contemporary pieces, such as the table and coffee tables from the D12 series designed by Marià Castelló and Lorena Ruzafa for Diabla Outdoor, provide a slight material and chromatic counterpoint to the ensemble.

The origin of some of the solutions of this project are closely linked to the artistic project Fragments d’Arquitectura, developed in parallel by Marià Castelló.

The construction process

Marià Castelló

Marià Castelló’s architecture studio began its course in February 2002 with the first public and private initiative projects on Formentera. The link, respect and commitment to the culture, landscape and territory of the smallest of the Pitiusa islands was a determining factor in the professional and personal orientation chosen.

The peace, austerity, serenity, precision, humility, balance, harmony, sustainability, order, restraint and ingenuity of the island’s original character inspire and colour the studio’s work.

Formentera is under considerable urban pressure, characterised by a large volume of buildings of poor architectural quality, which contrasts with the exceptional value of the natural and architectural substratum that characterises it. Faced with this dynamic, Marià Castelló proposes a small-format, self-sufficient, almost handcrafted studio structure, capable of taking on a very small volume of interventions simultaneously and with the aim of generating quality of life, beauty, health and happiness for the users of the spaces created.

Formentera is under considerable urban pressure, characterised by a large volume of buildings of poor architectural quality, which contrasts with the exceptional value of the natural and architectural substratum that characterises it. Faced with this dynamic, Marià Castelló proposes a small-format, self-sufficient, almost handcrafted studio structure, capable of taking on a very small volume of interventions simultaneously and with the aim of generating quality of life, beauty, health and happiness for the users of the created spaces.

In order to tackle larger-scale projects or to extend the geographical limits of the actions, Castelló has opted for decentralisation through external collaborations with other studios and professionals with similar values.

In terms of dissemination, the studio has collaborated with different types of publishing projects, exhibitions and lectures with the aim of disseminating both the island’s existing heritage and contemporary interventions generated with criteria and reflection.

Fuente: Marià Castelló · Architecture.

Project by Marià Castelló