published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE Autumn 2009 Issue, Volume #10
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When you come driving on the small road towards the village of Porquera de los Infantes, 100 km north of Palencia in northern Spain, the first thing that strikes you is that this is just another of those Spanish villages that once had a life and then fell into oblivion. Most of the houses have collapsed and only a few people have chosen to stay.
Coming closer, you start to realize why bus-loads of visitors have come to the almost abandoned village lately and why the leading Spanish newspaper El País has written about it.

The architect behind the experiment is Jesus Castillo Olí.

Outside the house he tells us to wait while he goes in to prepare the building for visitors. When he opens the heavy, rusty, iron gate we realize why he has done that.
 

The entrance to the Japanese Zen-inspired garden with meticulously raked white sand is illuminated, and water is running down a big piece of glass. In one corner of the ‘garden’ there is a small tree that blossoms with red flowers in the autumn. Above your head is the open sky, and in front of your eyes is the big glass wall that leads into the house. Once inside, a deep green glare from a holographic glass meets your eyes. A green that turns to red when the sun is shining. Landscape gardener Ricardo Zendrera created the garden with sand, running water and a couple of small trees.

“The patio is essential for the whole house. That’s where the first impression of calmness is created, and the glass wall provides that feeling of endless space that I wanted. My original idea was to build a house that was as open and light as possible. And to do it with a person who would tell me in detail how he wanted it to look. Fernando liked the idea but it took four years before we were satisfied with one another and the house,” Olí recalls.

Fernando Gallardo is one of Spain’s most well-known journalists. He writes for the major newspapers and every year he publishes guide books about the best hotels in Spain, Europe and the rest of the world. He is out travelling most of the time, but his base is in Madrid.  The last couple of years he has spent more and more time in the ruin, less in his flat in Madrid.

“I have always been interested in architecture and am a big fan of Japanese house building where simplicity is the major guideline. The house I wanted had to be avant-garde, a little tattered, something that touched emotions without being extravagant. Well, in short, a piece of art in the shape of a house. And like art it had to change in the eyes of the observer,”  says Gallardo.

Jesus Castillo Olí, for his part, is inspired by Scandinavian architecture with its light and open solutions. Therefore all the windows in the habitable ruin are big and lack totally the traditional Spanish blinds and curtains. The glass wall that separates the small garden from the rest of the house is also unexpected and very far removed from everything Spanish.

“It was very important for me to let the sun decide what kind of feeling that would inhabit the house. When the sun shines in the afternoon on the glass wall, all you see is the sky reflected in the glass,” says Olí.

When he had persuaded Fernando Gallardo to be the new owner of the
decaying former warehouse, this was followed by a long journey of discussions. About things that would work for practical reasons and in their entirety. The questions of light and lighting were by far the most important. Apart from the influence from the sun, Olí created a complex system of lights controlled by computer. In the ceiling, a round lamp changes into the colours of the rainbow. Other lamps are connected to the central system and to the most important ‘room’ in the house, the shower. One lamp is turned on above the huge shower placed five metres up in the ceiling, and the light makes the water glitter on its way down.

One of the main ideas with the house was that it should be experienced totally different in the day-time and at night.

“My idea was that the house would be experienced as totally different in the day-time and at night. And of course follow the seasons. During the day the sun rules, while the lamps force their way into your consciousness at night,” Olí explains.

As the house has been specifically adapted to Fernando Gallardo’s needs, it almost completely lacks every sign of a kitchen. But below the wooded ‘kitchen’ floor there is a bodega for wines. A house created for a person who doesn’t cook, but loves a good wine. No unnecessary things or furniture. One reclining-chair made of cow-hide, an LC2 sofa, both designed by Le Corbusier. Two chairs called Egoa, produced by the Spanish Stua company. A moveable iron table designed by Olí that is used both inside and outside. And no paintings on the walls. “That was one thing which we didn´t agree on from the beginning. Fernando loves art, but I thought it would disturb the simple appearance of the house. The only art in the house is, however, the optic centre of the whole interior. Salvador Dalí’s big eyes look at you wherever you are.”

The four years of thinking about and constructing the 115 square metre building was at times interrupted because the two – the architect and the owner – had to find an agreement they both could accept. But the fundamental feature, the creation of something light and unexpected, was an objective they had in common and it solved the disagreements.

“It takes a huge amount of confidence between two persons to carry out this kind of experiment under such a long period,” says Olí.

In an early stage of the building work it was decided that the black stone floor should have under-floor heating (very unusual in Spain) to avoid radiators on the walls. And that same floor should not end when the door to the garden was opened. Once again, this was to maintain the open feeling of the house. At the entrance, a big black stone wall has built-in heating and the same solution has been used in the big shower area. The heating system does of course reflect the fact that this part of Spain (between Palencia and Santander) can be snowy and very cold in the winter. The materials in the building are also simple: steel, glass, stone and a bit of wood.

“It was meant to be a low-budget house, simple but beautiful,” Olí remarks.

The materials that were used had to be distinct so that they showed the scantiness of the whole project and made the feeling of the ruin clear. That’s why Gallardo decided not to plaster anything but keep the holes in the bricks open to the elements. 

“It’s very interesting when I invite guests to come to visit me in my new house. They are so surprised when they see the ugliness, the disaster of the ruin. And most of them don’t understand the essential delicacy of the interior. Maybe they are confused from the start because the ruin is situated in such a romantic, rural area. It’s very interesting to see how people react,” says Gallardo.

Since he didn’t need the whole building, the possibility of keeping the feeling of a ruin was a lot easier. Half the house could be left open and didn’t need any windows. The idea was to express the feeling of something closed in that falls apart. And the open sky above the garden means it is open to all kinds of weather, heavy snow, rains, storms and hot summer days.

The big windows in the living area have been fastened on the outside and made 15 cm bigger than the opening. The idea was to get the feeling that there are no windows at all. No closed rooms. The shower is another example of a total clash with Spanish tradition. It is huge, dominating and is only separated from the garden by glass.

“Spanish showers are usually small, narrow, uncomfortable and totally closed. We wanted to break away from all that,” says Olí.

The shower also has the two glass doors that are drawn sideways, one hides the WC and the other a minimal wardrobe for a man who is always travelling.

The ‘sink’ is made of a glass plate leaning against a copper edge. The tap is on the side and everything is placed in the living room, not in the bathroom. The wall behind the sink is inspired by the Argentinean author Julio Cortazar. In one of his novels he philosophizes about how a wall that usually means something closed, also could mean hope. But that demands cracks in the wall that lets light come through. Jesus Castillo Olí shows how small light bulbs shine out from inside the wall at night. And they give hope.

When we are about to leave, three locals knock on the door and ask if they can have a look. The story of the house is not only something for designers and architects.

“I´m fixing my house and need some inspiration. This is really something,” one of them says.

This article was published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE Autumn Issue 2009 Volume #10.