SOLO House

The SOLO house is the second in a series of villas in the wooded hills of Aragon. The request for country houses in this remote area of natural beauty offers carte blanche to a range of international design firms carefully selected by Christian Bourdais, the first result being a design by Pezo von Ellrichshausen. The villa by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen is a ring-shaped volume of impressive proportions, on a hill that towers over a valley like a peninsula. The circular concrete roof slab is topped by a number of volumes containing technical installations that are both essential and sculptural. The water tanks, enveloped in gradated colours by Pieter Vermeersch, interact with the clear blue sky and the abundance of green and earth tones that are found in the natural landscape. The four living areas around the inner garden offer panoramic views of the suroundings. A row of metal columns bounds the living areas on the inside, following the chords of the circular floor plan. The perforated metal outer façades can be moved around the entire circumference of the building. Depending on where they are positioned, each of the spaces – the living areas just as much as the terraces in between, and also the inner garden – changes in nuance from ‘indoors’ to ‘outdoors’. The building invites you to explore a range of variations in the equilibrium between an abandonment to the seemingly endless natural surroundings and the seclusion that it offers.

Petrus Kemme

This project is published in Flanders Architectural Review N°13. This Is a Mustard Factory