Es Rafal de Son Macià: the Mallorcan house by Llorenç Brunet Arquitectes that reaches the prestigious Italian edition of AD

See the feature in Architectural Digest Italia

Between stone, wood, light and landscape, this project in the Llevant of Mallorca reinterprets the island’s traditional architecture from a contemporary perspective, with Neus Pastor’s photography as a testimony to a home conceived to blend into its surroundings.

In the landscape of Mallorca’s Llevant, Es Rafal de Son Macià proposes a way of understanding architecture in which the house does not seek to impose itself on the land, but to be part of it. Designed by Llorenç Brunet Arquitectes, the home is broken into four volumes that follow the natural slope of the plot and create a succession of courtyards, terraces and intermediate spaces. Mallorca’s traditional architecture is reinterpreted here from a contemporary perspective, with stone, wood, Arabic roof tiles and light as essential elements. The project has been photographed by Neus Pastor, recognised for her work specialising in architecture and interior design in Mallorca.

There are houses built on top of a landscape and others that seem to have found their place within it. Es Rafal de Son Macià belongs to the second category. On a steeply sloping rustic plot in Mallorca’s Llevant, the house designed by Llorenç Brunet Arquitectes sits on the highest and gentlest part of the land, seeking to reduce its visual presence and establish a more natural relationship with its surroundings.

The project’s first decision was, precisely, not to treat the house as a single volume. With 336.20 m² built, the house is divided into four interconnected bodies that shift slightly relative to one another to follow the contours of the land. The result is a fragmented architecture on a more domestic scale, which lets the building adapt to the topography rather than forcing the landscape to adapt to it.

Between these volumes there are courtyards, terraces and small outdoor spaces that make the route through the house also a route through the landscape. There is no single viewpoint and no single way of experiencing the home. Each movement reveals a new relationship with the countryside, the sea or the architecture itself.

A house that follows the slope

The fragmentation is much more than a formal decision. It makes it possible to resolve a complex plot without the visual impact of a long, continuous building. Each volume takes on a different function and, at the same time, helps build a sequence of connected spaces.

The semi-sunken courtyards take on an especially important role here. They are transitional places between the house and the outdoors, sheltered spaces where light and shade change throughout the day. They work as small microclimates and add depth to an architecture that is understood as much through its volumes as through the empty spaces between them.

This way of working recalls one of the most interesting features of the island’s traditional architecture: the ability to create comfort from simple resources. Shade, orientation, walls, courtyards and natural ventilation are part of a Mediterranean architecture that for centuries has known how to respond to the climate without artifice.

At Es Rafal de Son Macià, these principles appear reinterpreted for the needs of a contemporary home.

Tradition, without nostalgia

The house uses some of the most recognisable materials of Mallorcan rural architecture: Llevant stone, pitched Arabic-tile roofs and timber joinery. But the aim is not to reproduce a traditional house.

The intention is different: to recover what belongs to the place and use it in a present-day language. The architecture does not need decorative elements to look Mallorcan. The project’s own materiality is enough.

Stone brings mass and continuity with the land. Wood brings warmth. The pitched roofs recall the island’s rural buildings and, at the same time, help visually break up the different parts of the house.

The result is deliberately serene. It does not try to attract attention from afar. The house is discovered little by little.

And probably there lies one of the project’s main virtues: its relationship with the landscape is built not on spectacle, but on integration.

The landscape enters the house

In Mallorca, speaking of Mediterranean architecture also means speaking of how the outdoors is lived. The terrace, the courtyard, the garden or the shade of a tree are not secondary spaces, but an extension of the home itself.

At Es Rafal de Son Macià this idea is present from the overall organisation. The four volumes create different outdoor situations and multiply the possibilities of use. A courtyard can become a place to rest during the hottest hours; a terrace can open towards the landscape; another space can be more sheltered and offer privacy.

The architecture thus creates a succession of connected interiors and exteriors, with no rigid boundary between them.

The arrangement of the volumes also allows the house to open in different directions: towards the sea and towards the inner landscape of the estate. The house is not oriented only towards one big view, but builds different visual relationships with the territory.

It is an especially Mallorcan way of understanding luxury: having space, light, shade and landscape without needing to fill the architecture with unnecessary elements.

Light, shade and matter

During the day, light constantly transforms the perception of the house. The stone surfaces receive the sun, the courtyards create areas of shade and the roofs cast different degrees of protection over the outdoor spaces.

The materials thus take on a changing character. The same wall can look warmer at dawn, more intense at midday and almost golden at the end of the afternoon.

This relationship between matter and light is also present in other projects by Llorenç Brunet Arquitectes, where the studio approaches architecture as a way of blending into the Mediterranean landscape and working with the specific conditions of each site.

At Es Rafal de Son Macià, that philosophy is especially evident because the topography is not a constraint to be hidden. It is part of the project.

Photographing Mallorca’s architecture

To understand a house like this, the way it is photographed is also important. In this case, the images by Neus Pastor play a fundamental role.

Pastor, whose work is regularly linked to architecture, interior design and housing projects in Mallorca, has photographed numerous homes on the island later published in specialist media such as AD. Her eye also appears in different projects by Llorenç Brunet Arquitectes.

In her photographs, the architecture does not appear in isolation. Stone, vegetation, light and the horizon are part of the same image. It is an approach especially suited to a project whose main argument is precisely the relationship between house and landscape.

In the AD Italia feature on another Llorenç Brunet Arquitectes home, Ca Na Llarga, Neus Pastor’s photographs likewise show how Mallorcan architecture can be explained through its materials, its courtyards, its outdoor spaces and its relationship with the territory.

An architecture designed to last

Es Rafal de Son Macià also incorporates energy self-sufficiency solutions through photovoltaic and solar thermal collectors, integrating energy efficiency into the very conception of the project.

It does not appear as a technological add-on separate from the architecture, but as one more part of a way of building aimed at reducing the home’s impact and making use of the natural conditions of the place.

Topography, orientation, ventilation, shade, materials and energy are part of a single strategy.

It is a way of understanding sustainability that goes beyond adding certain technical systems: it also means building less against the place and more from the place.

A new way of understanding the Mallorcan house

Es Rafal de Son Macià does not set out to literally recover the traditional Mallorcan rural house. Nor does it seek to turn it into a contemporary piece completely detached from its context.

Its interest lies precisely in that middle ground.

Four volumes follow the slope. Stone connects the house to the earth. The tiled roofs recover a recognisable image of the Llevant landscape. The courtyards bring in shade and ventilation. The terraces extend life outdoors. And light completes an architecture that changes with the hours.

The result is a contemporary home, yet deeply tied to Mallorca.

A house that does not need to compete with the landscape because it was conceived to be part of it.

And perhaps that is the idea that best defines Es Rafal de Son Macià: not a house placed in the countryside, but an architecture that understands that, in Mallorca, the real project begins long before a wall is raised: it begins by listening to the land.

See the feature in Architectural Digest Italia