A compact white volume, deep terraces stepping down towards the sea, and a thousand square metres of shared garden around a sheet of water. Residencial Zalea is a multi-family housing project in Torreblanca, Fuengirola (Málaga), on a south-facing plot with open views over the Mediterranean and the coastline between Fuengirola and Mijas. The work, though, began in the municipal archive rather than on the drawing board: the plot carried a 2004 building permit (licencia de obras) for 36 dwellings, suspended in 2005 and reinstated in 2007, with no record of either withdrawal or lapse. Before drawing anything, we needed to find out what was still alive in that file.
The brief: the file comes first
On 4 October 2022 we went through the full planning file at Fuengirola Town Hall. Ten days later we delivered our planning report, in Spanish and in English, setting out what was actually on the table: the third phase of the development held building permit OM 26/2004 for 36 dwellings over three floors, with a basement for storage and parking, 3,446.40 m² of floor area of which 3,155.01 m² counted against the plot’s allowance, and a 44.22 m² pool.
The same review clarified the status of the earlier phases. Phase one was finished and held its first occupancy licence (licencia de primera ocupación). Phase two had been built under OM 32/03 but had never obtained that licence. Phase three carried suspension order 12791/05 of 7 December, issued after a complaint by an adjoining owner; the design was amended and the suspension was lifted in 2007.
After that, nothing new on file. The permit gave six months to start work and twenty to complete it, and would lapse if no extension was requested, yet we could find no record of the developer withdrawing, nor of any lapse proceedings. That is a risk, and risk is something you measure before commissioning a project, not after.
Site constraints
The second finding concerned area. The plot measures 2,755 m² in the Cadastre (Catastro), against the 3,583.26 m² recorded in the permit documentation. The difference comes from a change to the right-hand boundary that was never reflected in the permit, so the permitted floor area survived intact on a smaller plot. With a footprint of 1,100 m², there is not much room left to move the building around.
The real constraint, though, was access. The municipal architect repeatedly flagged the difficulty of vehicle access from the lower street and considered that it had to be resolved from above, which means dealing with the neighbouring owners. That is not a drafting problem. It is a negotiation that has to come first, and on it depends the basement car park, 1,157 m² below ground, and with it much of the whole development.
The scheme: 36 dwellings on a 2004 permit
We chose not to reinvent the brief. The scheme keeps the 36 dwellings in the permit and complies with the BA-2 ordinance of the Fuengirola local plan (PGOU) — open block, subtype 2 — with three floors above ground (ground plus two), accommodation within the roof and a single basement level. That gives 3,446 m² built above ground and 1,157 m² of basement, served by four stair cores and with no internal light wells: every flat looks outwards.
The mix of sizes is deliberate: 20 two-bedroom, two-bathroom flats, 10 two-bedroom flats with a bathroom and a cloakroom, and 6 one-bedroom flats. The ground floor takes the entrances and the outdoor communal area. Dwellings face mainly south and east, to capture the low winter sun while protecting the rooms from overheating in summer. The terraces are deep, genuine extensions of the living room and main bedroom, and the overhangs and setbacks that create them also act as passive solar shading for the façade, in line with the energy requirements of the CTE (Spanish Technical Building Code), DB-HE, for collective housing in climate zone A4. The building’s own form does the work of a sunshade.
Finishes were chosen for how they behave in the salt-laden air of the Málaga coast: pale mineral cladding, thermally broken aluminium joinery, solar control glazing and glass balustrades that keep the view to the horizon open. On services, the scheme provided for air-conditioning pre-installation with no heating system, while the scope planned for the construction project included photovoltaics and electric vehicle charging.
Where the project stopped
On 15 January 2023 we visited and photographed the plot. The scheme was being drawn in those same days — the drawing is dated 12 January — and from it came the two exterior visualisations that illustrate this page, produced in-house and dated 25 and 26 January: a compact white volume, stepped terraces and an outdoor communal area with 1,000 m² of lawn and garden planted with low-water Mediterranean species, 300 m² of concrete paving and 124 m² of special paving. The sun deck is organised around a 100 m² sheet of water. The 2004 permit provided for a 44.22 m² pool; the proposal comfortably more than doubled it, because in a 36-dwelling building the communal area is what spreads the enjoyment among all the owners.
In June 2024 we brought the full team together — building services engineering, telecommunications and building engineering — and put forward an integrated management proposal: basic design, construction project, building services, telecoms infrastructure (ICT), health and safety study, permit management and site management, with construction scheduled to start in 2025. The project went no further than scheme design. The images shown here are volumetric study renders, not photographs of a finished building, and it is only right to say so.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: New-build multi-family housing (open block, BA-2 ordinance of the Fuengirola local plan)
- Use: Collective residential. Three floors above ground (ground plus two), accommodation within the roof, one basement level
- Location: Torreblanca, Fuengirola (Málaga, Costa del Sol)
- Programme: Dwellings on typical floors, ground floor with entrances and outdoor communal area with pool; basement for storage and parking (1,157 m²)
- Design years: 2022-2024 (preliminary planning study, 2022; scheme design and visualisations, 2023)
- Status: Concept / scheme design stage
- Units: 36 dwellings: 20 with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, 10 with two bedrooms plus bathroom and cloakroom, 6 with one bedroom. Four stair cores
- Built area: 3,446 m² above ground and 1,157 m² of basement (approx. 4,603 m²), of which 3,155.01 m² counted towards the plot allowance under the previous permit
- Plot area: 2,755 m² according to the Cadastre (3,583.26 m² in the permit documentation)
- Client: Private developer
- Klic services: Preliminary planning study, scheme design and visualisations; integrated project management proposal
- Visualisations: Klic Arquitectos (January 2023)
- Team: Klic Arquitectos (Klicstudio Arquitectura y Diseño SLP)
