The term "Costa Brava" was published for the first time by the journalist Ferran Agulló in 1908, wishing to describe the rough and rugged landscape that characterizes much of the coastal area of Girona. With its rocky beaches and violent waves, the beauty of the area has enchanted many poets and writers throughout history.
That is why this landscape is presented as another actor in the architecture that traps the observer with the duality of the hardness of the stone that remains immobile within this landscape that contrasts with the softness of the sea that incessantly tries to leave its mark on it, incessantly modifying the environment.
USING ARCHITECTURE WITH A DESIGN APPROACH
When it comes to building, we are linked to the environment. This, applied to the design of a house, allows us to develop an architecture that is coherent and correct with itself, that learns from its surroundings. In Marcel House this is present throughout the development of the project, including in the very experience it offers. The fact of entering the house is felt as an experience of knowledge of this and the environment, passing from a central cave rooted to the ground in which the most private spaces are located that as you move forward transition to other more open where the architecture ends up merging and melting into the landscape itself that presents.
LANDSCAPE AS ARCHITECTURE
With a harmonious architecture, Marcel House, connects interior and exterior. Located on a cliff, it was designed divided into different levels that complement the language of the adjacent architecture and landscape. Each element has a role. The concrete platforms maintain the topographical lines as an extension of the stones to define the profile of the house; they are changing components, at first sight so robust and heavy that they end up transforming into floating sheets, infinite elements that become one with the sea/horizon.
The wood that enters the house, that accompanies it as if the landscape were able to enter it and accept it as another element of the environment. Finally, the glass, which is responsible for blurring the separation of both worlds.
LANDSCAPE AS ART
The complementation between architecture and landscape allows them to enhance each other, Marcel House being a stage with its backgrounds. Visual connections are offered where each platform connects with the land, the sky and the sea.
From the interior, something similar happens, since being free of structural elements that obstruct the view, different frames or views are created as photographs of the landscape, allowing that while you move around inside the house, the house offers you a preview of what you can find outside.
