Breeze-Block Walls and Pavilions Make This Spanish Villa Exceptionally Airy

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Project Details:

Location: Girona, Spain

Architect: Twobo Arquitectura / @twobo_arquitectura

Footprint: 2,690 square feet

Structural Engineer: Jordi Granada

Landscape Design: DA.CH. / @da.ch.eu

Lighting Design: Com Led

Photographer: José Hevia

From the Architect: "Inspired by the classical villas found in nearby Empúries, this house in Albons, Girona, in northern Spain pays tribute to a timeless Mediterranean typology of a house with an enclosing wall, a central sky-lit patio, and rooms organized around it.

"Two roughly plastered walls embrace the entire plot, protecting the house from the harsh northern winds and shielding it from views from the outside. Yet the orientation of these walls invites openness from within, allowing residents to enjoy framed views, a sense of shelter, and a harmonious flow between indoor and outdoor spaces. Within the enclosing wall are voids encouraging lines of sight throughout the property. This inclusion is a tribute to Le Corbusier and Sigurd Lewerentz—architects known for their obsession with windows, frames, and apertures.

"The three patios evoke the spirit of a Roman villa. The first, like a village square, is shaded by a tree which gives it a natural vitality. In the second is a pool. Resembling are reflective pond, it is also surrounded by vegetation, and is intended to reference the impluvium of a Roman domus—a shallow pond utilized to collect rainwater and regulate the climate within the home. The third patio is a fragrant garden, reminiscent of a monastic cloister, filled with aromatic plants.

"Together, the walls, patios, and their spatial arrangement create a joyful and intimate environment, alongside a sense of grounded tranquility. The use of concrete as the primary building material conveys ideas of endurance, and its use in the pillars of the colonnades delineating the patios, silently hints at the presence of ancient ruins.

"The rooms are arranged around the patios in three independent pavilions that are intended to be light, open, and in dialogue with the natural world. The architecture has a ‘nomadic’ spirit, echoing the rhythms of life itself. On the interior, modernist influences can further be identified in the choice of furniture, light fittings, wooden paneling on ceilings and certain walls, and an open tread staircase. The pavilions’ clean lines and semi-exposed structure also contribute to this modernist appearance, as does an approach that celebrates the inherent properties of the chosen materials.

"The house is composed of permeable, diaphanous elements such as ceramic latticework, glass, steel, and wood; these allow breezes, light, shadows and laughter to move freely through the property, such that the building could be said to be built more of air than of matter."