A House in Catalonia Comes Together Like a Collage

The Mediterranean country house is anarchitectural tradition that unites Europeans beyond national borders and across social classes. The French maintain them in Provence, and the Spanish in Catalonia—where the name for such houses is mas—havens for city dwellers seeking downtime near the balmy coast. The rich have them and so do the not-so-rich, though the rich, of course, have bigger ones that can resemble elegant chateaus, while their middle-class neighbors are more likely to camp out in something closer to a farmhouse, a little more rustic and a lot more handmade.