Office KGDVS design a Solo House for Christian Bourdais

Office KGDVS’s Solo House is part of developer Christian Bourdais’ plan to create a portfolio of houses designed by international architects in the Matarraña region of Spain

(Image credit: Bas Princen)

By Harriet Thorpe

last updated 10 October 2022

in Features

Known for its idiosyncratic responses to space and material, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen (KGDVS) is the latest architecture firm to complete a Solo House in Spain, as part of luxury developer Christian Bourdais’ vision for an architectural resort.

The circular house allows nature to dominate in the most elegant way – architects Kersten Geers and David Van Severen wanted the architecture to be invisible and let the surrounding 1000 hectares of natural beauty in the Matarraña region of Spain feel overwhelmingly present.

The design is reductive yet intuitive. A concrete plateau is raised just above the terracotta-coloured earth which forms the base of the house and a roof, mirroring the plateau beneath it, sits on four rows of eight steel columns to form a pavilion. Sliding facades made of extruded aluminium and polycarbonate panes can be moved around the three ‘indoor’ segments, exposing the interior to nature or sheltering it from the elements.

Inside, concrete floors are combined with polycarbomate panels, glass, polished stainless steel doors and dyed wood ceilings

The architecture lays out a new geometric understanding of the concept of ‘home’ and muddles the boundaries of indoor and out. Through the design, Office KGDVS looked to explore, question and provoke, the bonds that we have with nature.

Framed at the centre of the circular form, is a piece of untamed landscape with a pool scooped out at one side. It is from the middle that one can experience the orbiting shapes on the roof that hold water tanks and generators. Painted by artist Pieter Vermeersch, these functional necessities are translated into sculptural objects.

Appealing to a generation of nomadic and experiential consumers, Bourdais’ plan is to create a hotel on the same site for archi-tourists in search of self-imposed isolation and the freedom to taste the creative concepts of international architects.

Painter Pieter Vermeersch worked on these sculptural forms containing the facilities.

It is not often that an architect is given carte blanche and a piece of land to play with. Three years ago, Chilean duo Mayricio Pezo and Sofia Von Ellrichshausen completed another house just a five-minute walk away the Office KGDVS house.

Carefully positioned within the landscape, the two houses are invisible to each other and the size of the land offers Bourdais many possibilities for the future of this architectural paradise.

Bas Princen Office exterior view — The house is located in the middle of 1000 hectares of wilderness in the north-east of the Els Ports National Park, just over an hours drive from Reus airport.

Boundaries of indoor and outdoor — The architecture lays out a new geometric understanding of the concept of ‘home’ and muddles the boundaries of indoor and out.

The roof is a rail for the extruded aluminium and polycarbonate curtain which slides around the exterior, encasing the concrete platform within or exposing it to the elements

Olive groves, almond tree fields and black truffles grow on the site which is surrounded by 18 medieval villages.

Wire chaise longue — Office KGDVS commissioned designers Muller Van Severen to create this wire chaise longue.

Exterior view of the house — The house is a stage from which to experience a 360-degree panorama of uninterrupted wilderness.

The architecture lays out a new geometric understanding of the concept of ‘home’ — Office KGDVS are known for its theoretical approach to architecture.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Solo House website and the Office KGDVS website

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.

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