La Roca House – Ramon Esteve

Barcelona 2022 1.035 m²

La Roca House is located north of Barcelona, just half an hour from the city. The plot is on a hillside facing the sea, with the type of lush landscape found in Mediterranean forest dominated by grand pine trees, holm oaks and cork oaks.

No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.
Frank Lloyd Wright

The pedestrian access to the house is on the first floor, under a long cantilevered canopy that takes the visitor in. The day areas and the master bedroom are located on this storey, an open floor plan that opens to the dual landscape: on one side, the presence of the horizon floods the interior space; on the other, the Mediterranean forest provides fresh air and reinforces the direct connection to the environment.

The design for the house is born of the highest respect for its natural environment. The complex terrain has a main role in the creation and placing of the house. The house looks massive and heavy because of its connection with the ground it emerges from: a large base made of local stone merges with the mountain and becomes one with it. This plinth is topped by brown concrete platforms that protect and extend the interior outwards while pointing at the different sights from the site.

The masses of the house are set according to the location of existing singular trees, which are kept and surround the house. There is a rock in the site that sprouts from the ground marking a privileged position where you get the best views of the horizon. The house is arranged around this rock: it emerges from the water at the focal point of the pool, which merges with the sea because of its dark blue hue.

In order to enhance the integration with the landscape, all the colours, textures and chromatic range of the materials mirror the tones in the surroundings. The base is made of the same stonemasonry as the typical Maresme buildings and uses local stone. The concrete has a brown hue that gives continuity to the colour of the stone. The wood used on the façades is dark to integrate with the tree trunks and to last long, while the wood used inside is brighter and softer.

The landscaping is of great importance to the design of the building. The garden has been planned as a field integrated in the Mediterranean coastal forest, including a palette of typical Mediterranean species chosen because of their structure, texture or flowers. These flowers have the same chromatic range as the house, as the orange and ochre flowers mirror the colours of the wood, the steel and the stone in it. There is a wide range of outdoor spaces, such as the courtyards, the gardens, the lookouts or the roof garden, where the vegetation is the main feature.