The four concrete wings of this house in Girona, Spain, appear to hover in the air above an underground entrance (photographs by Filippo Poli).
Completed in 2010 by Barcelona studio Hidalgo Hartmann, the single-storey Casa Pocafarina has a cross-shaped plan that sits on four pillars and hovers a metre above the lawn.
The underground driveway tunnels down beneath the floor of an en suite master bedroom to arrive at a staircase that ascends into the heart of the house.
Two children’s bedrooms and bathrooms are situated in the wing opposite, while a living room and a dining room occupy the remaining two sides of the cross.
A square courtyard surrounded by glass is concealed at the centre of a building.
Photographer Filippo Poli also shot a concrete centre for rescued turtles, dolphins and birds by the same architects - see it here.
Here's some more text from Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectos:
Memory
The house is situated on a corner plot with some good views over the distant landscape.
In order to enjoy these views and avoid the neighboring buildings, the ideal configuration for the house was to create a compact form of cross which is placed at the center of gravity of the plot.
The four wings are oriented in a way that ensures the selected views from inside the house.
The whole volume is supported by four pillars and cantilevers out over the garden level at a hight of one meter.
The pillars itself are based on the lower ground floor of 8x8m that contains access to housing, the porch, garage and laundry.
On the top floor, the cross-shaped plan organizes the four wings around a central space, an exterior courtyard, that provides sunlight into the heart of the house.
The four wings contain the different functions of the house with the living room area and the kitchen-dining area connected with each other through the transparency of the courtyard.
Distributed on both sides of this main space there is the master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and the two children's bedrooms also with a bathroom hidden by a concrete wall.
The use of concrete in its natural colour and made with wood slats all over the house reveals visibly the powerful construction that is needed to realise the idea in a coherent way.
Authors of the project: HIDALGO.HARTMANN, Jordi Hidalgo Tané, architect, Daniela Hartmann, interior designer.
Technical Architect: Rafel Serra Torrent, Technical Architect.
Collaborators: Torrent Rafel Serra, Technical Architect, Ana Roque, architect.
Promoters: Xevi Bartrina i Alba Sarola.
Construction: Estructures Olot S.L (concrete) LI-BRA S.L (general constructor) Fusteria Serra (Word furniture) Plantalech (Aluminium charpenter) Cuines Santi, Olot (Kitchen) Electrica Masaló (fluids instalation) Electricitat Quim (electrical instalation)