An L-shaped house turned to the south, with the pool at the centre of the plot and deep porches working as the threshold between inside and terrace. Casa Leala is a detached house in Arroyo de la Miel, Benalmádena (Málaga), built on a 501.30 m² plot in a long-established residential area of the Costa del Sol and completed in June 2024. Along the way came an unfavourable report from the planning department, a revised basic design and two decisions taken once work was already under way on site.
The brief: a detached house in Arroyo de la Miel
The plot came to us empty — 501.30 m² by topographic survey, 482.00 m² on the cadastre (Catastro) — a few minutes’ walk from the bus stop and the commuter rail station. Before committing to anything we drew two complete schemes and modelled both in 3D. The winner set the house out as an L, turned to the south, with the pool in the middle of the plot: the built volume shelters the outdoor living area and leaves the rest of the ground free. Service spaces sit on the north façade, and deep porches do the work of moving you from inside to terrace.
The accommodation runs over two floors above ground, plus a fully buried basement. Downstairs, a 37.07 m² living and dining room opens onto the porch, the terrace and the pool; alongside it, the kitchen, a 9.25 m² study and a guest suite with its own bedroom and bathroom. Upstairs, the principal bedroom with dressing room and en-suite, and a 14.12 m² covered terrace enclosed on two sides. An internal courtyard tempers the light through the day and helps cross-ventilation. That adds up to 135.83 m² built above ground, 28.52 m² of covered outdoor space and 16.73 m² under pergola, with a 45.34 m² pool and parking within the plot.
From design to building permit
The basic design (proyecto básico) was certified by the College of Architects of Málaga. The planning department issued an unfavourable report; we drew up a revised basic design, it was certified and the report turned favourable. The construction project (proyecto de ejecución) was certified next and reported on favourably, and the roads and works department (Vías y Obras) did the same. Along the way the property’s postal address changed, and we had to file a clarifying statement so that the project and the cadastre matched.
We mention it because it affects the schedule. On a detached house of this size, the permitting timetable weighs as much as the construction timetable, and it is better to put it on the table before starting than to justify it afterwards.
Two decisions taken on site
The first was to lower the house. With the setting-out already done, we shifted the volume and lowered the house by 50 cm, to level 91.70, to bring the distance to the private boundary to the 3.00 m required by the U-4 detached-housing rules of the Benalmádena general plan (PGOU). The side effect turned out better than the reason for it: lowering the house gained terrace area around the pool. The planned perimeter ramp was left out, the whole terrace came out on a single level with a planting bed, and the new change in level was absorbed by the vehicle entrance ramp, with the elevation of the boundary fence adjusted to suit. A surveyor set out the shift, and it is all recorded in the completion certificate (certificado final de obra).
The second was the basement. In the basic design’s schedule of areas it took up 41.23 m². It ended up at 117.46 m² built, with an open-plan storeroom of 101.67 m² usable floor area. Because it is fully buried it does not count towards buildable floor area (edificabilidad), so the house grew downwards without touching the plot’s development rights or the volume you see from outside. It was handed over as a shell, in polished concrete and screeded render, and is reached only from within the plot by a ramp starting next to the property gate.
Materials and construction
The façade is a cavity wall insulated externally: 60 mm of extruded polystyrene, a half-brick outer leaf in perforated clay, a cavity and an inner leaf of double hollow brick. It is finished in cement render with masonry paint and ceramic cladding to the panels shown on the drawings, a continuous white finish with occasional timber elements. Windows are anthracite-grey anodised aluminium with 4-12-6+6 double glazing and solar control to the south and west elevations. The roof is an inverted flat roof with a PVC membrane and 40 mm of XPS. Inside, porcelain stoneware and plasterboard ceilings; outside, imprinted concrete and low-water Mediterranean planting. The structure is reinforced concrete — pad and strip footings, retaining walls and waffle slabs — on ground with an allowable bearing pressure of 2.9 kp/cm² from the geotechnical survey.
The house was built by the owner-developer: both the setting-out record and the completion certificate list the work as self-build (autoconstrucción). That changes the role of the site management team: instead of coordinating a construction firm, it resolves the job decision by decision and visit by visit. Work finished on 21 June 2024, after twenty months. Works supervision and health and safety coordination were carried out by the building engineer (arquitecto técnico) José Jiménez de la Paz.
It ran without incident, and that is on record: the documents certified by the Málaga College of Building Engineers (COAAT) on 3 July 2024 state that the works were carried out without any need to make entries in the site instruction book (libro de órdenes) or the incident book. The completion certificate was signed on 21 June 2024 and certified by the College of Architects of Málaga on 9 July.
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Technical data
- Typology: Detached house, new build, L-shaped
- Use: Residential, single-family
- Location: Arroyo de la Miel, Benalmádena (Málaga)
- Design year: 2019
- Construction year: 2024
- Status: Built. Completion certificate signed in June 2024 and certified by the College of Architects of Málaga (COA Málaga) in July 2024
- Built area: 135.83 m² above ground (110.08 m² ground floor, 25.75 m² first floor) plus a 117.46 m² basement; also 28.52 m² of covered outdoor space, 16.73 m² under pergola and a 45.34 m² pool
- Plot area: 501.30 m² by topographic survey (482.00 m² on the cadastre)
- Units: 1 house
- Client: Private individual. A private owner-developer who owns the plot and is building their own home as a self-builder
- Building contractor: Self-build (autoconstrucción): the owner took on the roles of contractor and site manager
- Site management: Klicstudio Arquitectura y Diseño SLP — Juan Alejandro Goñi Uriarte and Ruth Buján Varela
- Works supervision: José Jiménez de la Paz, building engineer (arquitecto técnico). Also health and safety coordination during construction
- Structure: Reinforced concrete: pad and strip footings, retaining walls, one-way ventilated ground slab and waffle slabs. Calculated by Klic as part of the construction project
- Geotechnical survey: Geotecnia Consultores SL. Allowable bearing pressure of the ground: 2.9 kp/cm²
- Klic services: Basic design, revised basic design, construction project including structural and building services calculations, site management and completion certificate
- Team: Juan Alejandro Goñi Uriarte (COA Málaga reg. no. 1,206) and Ruth Buján Varela (COA Málaga reg. no. 1,333), design architects and site managers
Other projects by Klic Arquitectos
- Casa Maravillas — detached house in Benalmádena Costa (Málaga).
- Casa Caliza — detached house in Benalmádena Pueblo (Málaga).
- Casa Olivia — detached house in Benalmádena (Málaga).
