A white house with a great deal of glass, over a quarter of its built area in shade and half the plot left alone. A private client came to us with the notes for the house already written, and one rule inside them: they would rather do without square metres than without quality. The scheme design for this single-family house in La Cala de Mijas (Málaga) — 485.38 m² of built area on a 1,797 m² plot — was drawn around that line. The job was not to fill the plot, but to decide what stayed out of it.
The brief: a set of handwritten notes
The background documentation on the plot was gathered on 13 March 2020, and the scheme design was dated May. Between those two dates one document governs: the written notes of the client, a private individual building their own home. They asked for a modern look, mostly white with a few elements to break it up, plenty of glass and as much daylight as possible. And they set down in writing the premise that orders everything else: “it is better to do without square metres than without quality or features that bring comfort”.
A brief like that saves a good deal of arguing. It caps the programme before anyone draws a line and leaves room for the things you touch every day. We worked from the Mijas local plan sheets on building lines, land-use classification and general structure (the PGOU), the sector planning documents, the topographical survey and the cadastral record (Catastro): 1,797 m², recorded at the time as undeveloped land.
The house, floor by floor
The house sits on two storeys above ground, with a basement and a small enclosure giving access to the roof terrace. Enclosed floor area: 138.79 m² on the ground floor, 112.55 m² on the first, 86.50 m² of basement and 13.91 m² of roof access — 351.74 m² in all. Add the covered but unenclosed space — porches, gallery, carport and terraces — and it comes to 485.38 m² of built area, 268.30 m² of it usable.
The ground floor holds the daytime rooms — entrance hall, a 24.05 m² living room, a 24.48 m² kitchen-dining room — plus the things the brief asked for and most plans squeeze: a 13.60 m² study, a larder, a laundry and a store. Upstairs, three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom; the main one 16.51 m² with a dressing room. The lift does not end at the first floor: it carries on up to the roof terrace, as the notes asked.
The basement the client did not want
On this the notes were explicit: better to avoid a basement and, in any case, keep the garage at ground level so water never becomes a problem. But with the full programme on the table, dropping the basement altogether meant spreading the house sideways and eating into the part of the plot the layout keeps for the daytime rooms and the pool.
The decision was to pare it back to a workable minimum: 86.50 m² holding a 36.49 m² garage, a store, a lobby, the lift and a 19.44 m² plant room. Not one habitable room below ground. The basement stops being an extra floor and goes back to being what it is: the place for the car and the machinery.
Shade, water and half a plot left alone
The area schedule describes this house better than the renders do. Of the 1,797 m² plot, 888.99 m² are left in their natural state; 570.26 m² are hard landscaping, 41.23 m² lawn or planting, and there are 239.95 m² of masonry retaining wall. The pool has a 59.40 m² tank and a 70.13 m² water surface. Porches, gallery, covered carport and terraces come to 133.64 m² — over a quarter of the built area has no façade at all, only shade. On this coast, that is the design.
Two complete versions of the scheme were delivered, the first and a revised 2.0, each with drawings, an area schedule and renders. That is where it stopped: it was never stamped by the College of Architects (visado), never got a building permit (licencia) and never reached site. We produced the renders and the video in-house, and today they are all that remains of the house.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Detached single-family house, with basement, two storeys above ground and roof access
- Use: Residential
- Location: La Cala de Mijas, Mijas (Málaga)
- Design year: 2020
- Status: Scheme design delivered in two versions; not built (never stamped by the College of Architects or granted a building permit)
- Built area: 485.38 m² (351.74 m² enclosed and 133.64 m² of porches, gallery and terraces; 268.30 m² usable)
- Plot area: 1,797 m², of which 888.99 m² are left in their natural state
- Units: 1 house
- Client: Private client (individual self-builder)
- Klic services: Scheme design: drawings, area schedule and renders, delivered in two versions
- Images: Renders and video produced in-house by Klic
- Team: Juan A. Goñi Uriarte (COA Málaga reg. no. 1206) and Ruth Buján Varela (COA Málaga reg. no. 1333), Klicstudio Arquitectura y Diseño SLP
Other projects by Klic Arquitectos
- Villa Kauai — single-family house in La Cala Golf, Mijas (Málaga).
- Casa Leala — single-family house in Benalmádena (Málaga).
- Casa Maravillas — single-family house in Benalmádena (Málaga).
