High concrete walls enclose a secret garden around this residence for a poet in Zaragoza - our second story this week from Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza.
Casa Moliner was designed by Alberto Campo Baeza as an introverted enclosure, with a clean white house surrounded by newly planted trees and a calming pool of water. Two-metre-high walls surround the site on every side, blocking views out as well as in.
"We raised high walls to create a box open to the sky, like a nude metaphysical garden with concrete walls and floor," said the architect.
The three-storey house has two levels above ground, while a third floor is buried below the courtyard with sunken patios on each side. A staircase spirals up through the centre of the plan like a circular spine.
A library occupies the uppermost floor, creating a place for the poet to work. A wall of translucent glazing brings diffused light through the room, while a narrow window frames a single view across the neighbourhood.
"For dreaming, we created a cloud at the highest point," said Campo Baeza, "with northern light for reading and writing, thinking and feeling."
A single room on the ground floor forms a large living and dining area that opens out to the surrounding garden, while bedrooms and bathrooms are located downstairs.
Our first story this week about Campo Baeza featured a bulky concrete house on a hilltop in Toledo.
See more architecture by Alberto Campo Baeza »
See more houses in Spain »
Photography is by Javier Callejas.
Read on for a project description from Alberto Campo Baeza:
Moliner House, Zaragoza
To build a house for a poet. To make a house for dreaming, living and dying. A house in which to read, to write and to think.
We raised high walls to create a box open to the sky, like a nude, metaphysical garden, with concrete walls and floor. To create an interior world. We dug into the ground to plant leafy trees.
And floating in the centre, a box filled with the translucent light of the north. Three levels were established. The highest for dreaming. The garden level for living. The deepest level for sleeping.
For dreaming, we created a cloud at the highest point. A library constructed with high walls of light diffused through large translucent glass. With northern light for reading and writing, thinking and feeling.
For living, the garden with southern light, sunlight. A space that is all garden, with transparent walls that bring together inside and outside.
And for sleeping, perhaps dying, the deepest level. The bedrooms below, as if in a cave. Once again, the cave and the cabin. Dreaming, living, dying. The house of the poet.
Location: Avda. Ilustración, 40, Urbanización Montecanal, Zaragoza
Client: Luis Moliner Lorente
Surface area: 216 sqm
Architect: Alberto Campo Baeza
Collaborating architects: Ignacio Aguirre López, Emilio Delgado Martos
Structure: María Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez
Rigger: José Miguel Moya
Constructor: Construcciones Moya Valero, Rafael Moya, Ramón Moya
