Spanish studio Fran Silvestre Arquitectos has completed a pool-side home near Valencia comprising a squat white cylinder with terraces set into deep voids in its walls (+ movie).
Fran Silverstre Arquitectos designed Balint House for a site beside a golf course in the municipality of Bétera.
Its curving walls and thick elliptical roof disguise a simple rectangular floor plan comprising a monochrome living space and six bedrooms, spread across three levels.
The facade is given a plastic-like shine with a solid surface cladding – a resin and stone dust composite typically employed on kitchen work surfaces.
The architects hope the glossy walls and rounded form will deflect the eye, focusing views on the garden and golf course beyond the property and minimising the impact on the leafy site.
"A continuous facade that seems to lodge only one floor is set on the site," said the architects. "The aerodynamic visuals of it guide the eye towards the deepness of the neighbouring landscape."
Expansive glazing sits within deep cut-outs, leading out onto terraces on the upper and lower floors. From here, the sand bunkers of the golf range can be glimpsed through the wooden-trellis fencing that surrounds the property's perimeter.
A crescent-shaped swimming pool curves around the periphery of the house, framing the semi-circular outcrop of a stone patio. Underwater lighting gives the tiled pool a blue glow at night.
Monochrome materials and finishes were added throughout the living space, which features an atrium and more large windows.
Sections of black-tinted glass enclose a white staircase and a walkway that skirts the edges of the light well on the upper level.
Three bedrooms are located on this uppermost floor. A master bedroom and en-suite bathroom take up position over the pool, and open out onto a large semi-circular balcony that is sheltered beneath the overhanging roof.
Fluorescent strip lighting traces the outline of the roof on the underside of this overhang.
In the ground-floor living space, a thick section of marble-clad wall divides the kitchen from a soft seating area located beside the top-lit atrium.
A long strip cut from the centre of the wall mirrors the shape of a window beyond, allowing light to penetrate the centre of the plan.
In the floor's westerly corner, a small bathroom sits by a second flight of stairs that leads to a subterranean level. Marble, glass and mirrored walls give each of the property's five bathrooms a polished appearance.
The L-shaped basement contains three further bedrooms that open out to sunken patios on either side of the property. Glazing fronts the rooms, and staircases lead down to the space from the surrounding garden.
High white troughs planted with box hedges surround these deep shafts, in lieu of balustrades.
Photography is by Diego Opazo. Video is by Alfonso Calza.
Project credits:
Architecture: Fran Silverstre Arquitectos
Project team: Fran Silvestre, Fran Ayala, Ángel Fito, Adrián Mora, Jordi Martínez, Maria Masià
Structural engineer: David Gallardo | UPV
Building engineer: Carlos García
Interior designer: Alfaro Hofmann
Art direction: Adrián Mora Maroto
Collaborators: Krion, Porcelanosa, Butech, Porcelanosa L'Antic Colonial | Porcelanosa. Shüco | Dekovent
Developer: Florin Bortos Balint (Globalint SL) Construction: Construcciones Alabort
