Moving the staircase to free up the plan, taking down one small volume to bring the house back within its limits, and handing everyday life over to two terraces that together cover more area than the first floor. Casa Los Olivos is the renovation of a 1984 villa in Rincón de la Victoria, on the eastern Costa del Sol, with the interior design drawn up in-house. The house came to us with 183.15 m² of built floor area where the local ordinance allows 151.49, as well as excess site coverage and a boundary setback that did not comply. The design could not start with the layout: it had to start with bringing the house back within its planning parameters.
The commission: a 1984 villa with 31.66 m² of excess floor area
The plot measures 504.95 m² by topographic survey (491 m² on the cadastre) and sits in an established residential area of detached and semi-detached houses. It falls under the UAS-2 zoning ordinance of the Rincón de la Victoria local plan (PGOU), which caps floor area at 151.49 m² and site coverage at another 151.49 m². The existing house stood at 183.15 m² and 221.08 m² respectively — 31.66 m² of floor area and 69.59 m² of footprint over the limit — and its boundary setback did not comply either. It is more common on the coast than you might think: an eighties house, perfectly ordinary to look at, that has sat outside its planning parameters for decades without anyone checking.
The programme, by contrast, was a full one: entrance hall, living-dining room and kitchen in a single space, a study, two bedrooms and a bathroom on the ground floor; a main bedroom with en-suite bathroom and dressing room on the first floor; and a storeroom of its own. Renovating the inside without touching the envelope would have left the house just as badly fitted to its plot as before, with nowhere to put that storeroom. That was the real conflict in the brief, and it is not solved by moving partitions.
The decision: demolish one volume and reorder the house
Two moves, in this order. First, demolish the detached WC volume on the ground floor: 1.75 m² of usable area whose removal brings the building’s footprint into line with the boundary setback, the site coverage and the floor area at a stroke. Second, move the storage out of the principal rooms, so the house gains programme without using up floor-area allowance.
The final figures are 151.27 m² of countable floor area against the 151.49 m² permitted, and 138.35 m² of site coverage against the same ceiling. That leaves 0.22 m² of margin. It is not virtuosity — it is simply what was left, and it explains why every decision on the plan was checked against the area schedule before it was drawn.
The house reorganised, and the interiors
The staircase is what frees up the plan. The old opening is closed and a new one cut in a different position. Moving a staircase in an eighties house is not something you do for its own sake, but it is what lets the ground floor work as a single space rather than a sum of rooms.
With the stair off the middle of the plan, the ground floor settles into 87.10 m² usable: entrance hall, living-dining room and kitchen as one open space, a study, two bedrooms and a bathroom. The first floor holds 32.95 m² usable for the main bedroom with en-suite bathroom and dressing room. Outside there is a pergola-covered terrace of 45.77 m² and an open terrace of 84.76 m² usable, which on this coast is where life is really lived for much of the year.
The envelope is put right from the inside. The existing brick walls are lined with a self-supporting stud wall, rock wool panels and plasterboard: the way to upgrade an eighties house without rebuilding its façade. Hot water comes from an air-source heat pump, drainage is separated into foul and rainwater, ventilation is hybrid with trickle vents in the window frames and mechanical extract in the kitchen and bathrooms, and climate control is air-to-air through ducts concealed in a services ceiling. The services are justified in the project’s own appendices: REBT, DB HS-4, DB HS-5 and RITE.
The interior design is our own as well, set out in drawings for floors, bathrooms, kitchen, ceilings, furniture, lighting and climate control. Large-format porcelain floors, Walmer Pearl 90×90, with slip resistance class C1, C2 or C3 depending on the room and on whether it is inside or out. Made-to-measure timber furniture, a custom-designed 160 x 50 x 13 cm TAU porcelain washbasin in the main bathroom, wall-hung Roca Ona sanitaryware, brushed rose gold taps and trims, and mirrors with perimeter lighting. External aluminium joinery in anthracite, with floor-to-ceiling windows. The proposal renders were delivered to the owners on 18 December 2025; bathroom and tile supplies were agreed with PROINCO and Palomo Cerámicas, using TAU products.
From COA certification to building permit: an eight-month process
The basic and construction design was certified by the College of Architects of Málaga (visado del COA) on 30 October 2025. The application went in to Rincón de la Victoria Town Hall on 24 November 2025, and the decree granting the major works permit (licencia de obra mayor) arrived on 22 July 2026: eight months, with two requests for corrections along the way. The first asked for UTM coordinates of the plot and the building and proof that the public highway and construction-waste bonds had been lodged; the second, for a cadastral graphic validation report. None of it was unreasonable and none of it was a surprise, but it added eight months to the client’s calendar. A file carrying inherited planning excesses gets looked at more closely, and that is something to flag when the commission is signed, not in month six.
The works were put out to tender among three contractors.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Full villa renovation with interior design
- Use: Residential — detached single-family house. UAS-2 zoning ordinance, Rincón de la Victoria local plan (PGOU)
- Location: Rincón de la Victoria (Málaga, eastern Costa del Sol / Axarquía)
- Design year: 2025 (design report dated October 2025)
- Status: Project under construction
- Built area: 283.53 m² above ground. Countable for floor-area purposes: 151.27 m²
- Plot area: 504.95 m² by topographic survey (491 m² on the cadastre)
- Units: 1 single-family house
- Programme: Ground floor 87.10 m² usable (living-dining room and kitchen as one open space, study, two bedrooms, bathroom); first floor 32.95 m² usable (main bedroom with en-suite bathroom and dressing room); pergola-covered terrace 45.77 m² and open terrace 84.76 m² usable
- Client: Private client — their own single-family home
- Construction supervision (dirección de obra): Klic Arquitectos
- MEP engineering: Designed in-house by Klic Arquitectos (appendices REBT, DB HS-4, DB HS-5 and RITE)
- Interior design: Klic Arquitectos
- Interior suppliers: PROINCO (sanitaryware and taps) and Palomo Cerámicas / TAU Cerámica (floors and wall tiling)
- Design certification: College of Architects of Málaga (visado del COA), 30 October 2025
- Building permit: Major works permit (licencia de obra mayor), Rincón de la Victoria Town Hall, 22 July 2026
- Klic services: Survey of the existing house, preliminary design, basic and construction design, interior design project, COA certification (visado), building permit management, tendering and construction supervision
- Team: Juan Alejandro Goñi Uriarte (COA no. 1206) and Ruth Buján Varela (COA no. 1333) — Klicstudio Arquitectura y Diseño SLP, professional practice no. 804, College of Architects of Málaga
