lys villalba + enrique espinosa add ceramic-clad extension to spanish country house

spanish architects lys villalba and enrique espinosa have completed the young old house, an extension of a 70s summer residence, for a couple of semi-urban, semi-rural inhabitants and their four daughters. located in cercedilla, a municipality 60 kilometres from madrid in the guadarrama mountains, the home is designed to grow in layers, while all materials from the renovation process have been salvaged and repurposed into furniture and other elements of the extension.

all images by josé hevia

‘cercedilla’s territory, a municipality 60 kilometres from madrid in the guadarrama mountains, has been shaped by the three country–city migrations of the last decades,’ explain lys villalba and enrique espinosa. ‘over the last decade a new kind of inhabitant has emerged, simultaneously rural and urbanite: a population that returns to the countryside without actually leaving the city.’ designed for a family of such semi-urban, semi-rural inhabitants, who inherited the country house, the extension is aimed at adapting the existing structure to their ‘rur-urban’ life.

the architects have developed a threefold strategy for the residence, which was built in the 70s as a summer house, and had no insulation of any kind, nor did it establish any kind of direct relationship with the surrounding landscape. thus, the design strategy allows to progressively extend, relate, and thermally insulate the house, tending to both comfort and energy consumption, as well as the enjoyment of its rural character. during the first phase, a three-volume extension has been built within the roof perimeter using a ceramic cladding that helps distinguish the new elements: an extended living area, a bedroom for the four daughters (where the garage and woodshed were), and a boiler room. the original stone walls have been cut and substituted with a pitched metal beam and tie rod, allowing the whole living area to open up towards the landscape.

original materials have been repurposed in the young old house, including parts from the old front and the roof, which have been transformed into furniture. additionally, —four old cut-up beams from the ceiling now make the dining tables, while the new doors are a reassembly of the red wooden window shutters, and the slate from the old roof awaits in the barn to be used as future cladding for the front. new materials, mainly in metal, bring the house closer to the landscape: a hidden door straight out to the field, rotating outdoor lamps to light evening meals outside during the summer months, four movable beds, and two porthole windows to see, from the north, right through to the southern landscape.

the extension of the house will continue year after year, when sahari —previously a builder and now a family employee — will take down the stone and wood from each front, adding the necessary insulation to the existing wall, and building them up again with the previously recovered materials but following a different pattern. the house will grow in layers, insulated in this way over successive stages.