Located in the heart of Algemesi, Spain, Carmen House is an inspirational structure that was conceptualized, planned, and brought to life by teams at Carles Faus Arquitectura.
Directly inspired by a gorgeous Ibizan country house, this fantastic swelling features simple, clear lines, plenty of light, and a largely white colour palette among its prime features. Located in a desert-like setting, the goal of the house’s aesthetic was to stand out and look like a piece of art against the dry background, without looking entirely out of place.
To achieve this, designers featured cacti around the grounds and in the decor scheme, incorporating something that’s naturally found in that setting to create cohesiveness between the building and the land. This was bolstered by the building of a lovely rock garden, but the house was complemented in this piece as well by sticking to stark white rocks that matched the home’s exterior.
During its conception, designers aimed to build the house so that the path of someone’s day through the structure would follow the way the light hits it. By that, we meant that the light starts in the kitchen where you’d eat breakfast in the morning, spreads over social spaces throughout the afternoon, and ends high in the sky by the bedrooms on the top floor in the evening. The house, the natural sunlight, and the lifestyle of the dweller play of each other to tell a daily story.
Following the path of sunlight isn’t the only way that this lovely house builds a connection with its environment. The ground floor features sliding glass doors that open an entire wall to the back leisure space and bring the breeze right into the home, while balcony spaces built into the step-like structures higher up in the home give more private outdoor areas for relaxation near the master and guest bedrooms.
The way the structure of the house fosters a seamless interior and exterior relationship does more than just let a light breeze travel from room to room. It actually also works with the seasonal cycles by giving guests and dwellers a place plenty of places to go elsewhere in the house that stay cool and shady during the hottest month while the sun hits a very specific place, rather than seeping in all over.
In addition to letting fresh air and targeted sunlight pour into the home, designers chose to extend the rock and cacti gardens we mentioned earlier from the back leisure space and right into the home, tying the nature surrounding the house right into the faily experiences of those who live inside.
Upon entering the house, you’ll notice that most of the practical and social rooms are located in a central, open-concept space that makes everything one might need on an average day easy to move between. From there, the house extends upward in a nearly stacked fashion, with private and leisure rooms set at points that feel almost like platforms. Each one features a lovely window that showcases the view, but also clean, white curtains that will protect the interior from intense sun when necessary.
In addition to having an entirely white exterior outside of the presence of those green cactus plants, the house features a nearly entirely white interior as well. This is designed to mimic the fresh crispness of the kind of blank white canvas an artist might work on. In this context, it lets light play in each space, increases the brightness in each room, and keeps things bright and cheerful, making each piece of furniture and decor stand out in its own right.
Photographs by: Mariela Apollonio