Home-Office in Formentera Island

© Estudi EPDSE

Architects: Marià Castelló Martínez
Location: Es Pujol de s’Era, Formentera, Spain
Collaborators: Marga Ferrer, Laura Tur, Carmen Martínez, Josep Castelló, Catalina Verdera, Jaume Luís, Segundo García, Pep Yern & Belén Molina
Structure: Albert Yern Ribas, José Antonio Molina, Salvador Soteras & Agustí Yern
Built Area: 201 sqm
Completion: 2011
Photographs: Estudi EPDSE

    Es Pujol de s’Era is a fairly representative fragment of the inland landscape of the island of Formentera. It comprises 33,022 square metres of wheat and barley fields, a small wood of common and Phoenician juniper and rosemary, and dry‐stone walls on a practically flat topography. The intervention seeks refuge among the existing vegetation and a fragment of dry‐stone wall. These two conditions draw out the dimensions, the orientation and the height of a construction of austere geometry that bears some relation to the architectural tradition of Formentera.

© Estudi EPDSE

A traditional dry‐stone wall establishes the alignment in the territory and becomes part of the northern elevation of the building, at the same time setting it in the landscape. An old chapel built over an underground water cistern marks out the building’s longitudinal axis and is a constant reference of dialogue/tension, both in the exterior and the interior.
This is an architecture that seeks context by means of relations with its surroundings, shunning mimesis.

© Estudi EPDSE

The north‐south orientation of the proposal generates a duality that was required by the programme and that the ground plan radically synthesizes: segregation of the more public activity from private life. The north side is the most exposed; it is clearly visible from kilometre 2.3 on the Camí Vell de la Mola, the main approach route.