Micro-cement, timber, stone, brass, rush and coloured zellige: the palette that ended up giving the house its name. Villa Boho is a luxury villa in Colinas del Limonar, Málaga — 700 m², with the design, the interiors and the site supervision all by Klic Arquitectos. It came in as a double commission from a private developer: two detached houses on adjoining plots, taken through planning and built in parallel. The serious problem was never on the drawing board. It turned up in the excavation: the plot sits on phyllite rock, and the water has nowhere to go.
The commission, and what the plot allowed
The plot is rectangular, hemmed in by other detached houses, with the street to the north and public green space to the south. The UAS ordinance of the Colinas del Limonar local plan (plan parcial) requires a 3.0 m setback from each side boundary and fixes the ground floor level, so the siting is not really a choice: you take it and make the most of it. The house sits on three levels. Ground floor for living room, kitchen-diner, garage and a pergola-covered porch, with the pool to the south. First floor with two bedrooms, both facing south, opening onto a pergola-covered terrace. And a full basement given over to service space: store, box rooms, cleaning room and pantry.
The building permit (licencia de obras) did not come through first time. Málaga City Council issued an unfavourable report, and the basic design had to be reworked on three counts: building height, boundary fencing and the buildable floor-area calculation. The amended basic design went in six days later and ended with a favourable report and the permit. We mention it because it is the usual pattern for new builds in Málaga, and worth knowing before anyone commits to a timeline.
What turned up in the excavation
The geotechnical survey gave fair warning. The bearing stratum is very dense phyllite rock, with a permeability of 10⁻⁷ to 10⁻⁸ m/s. In plain terms: the ground carries a great deal — 3.0 kgf/cm² allowable bearing pressure from 4.0 m down — but it does not drain. The borehole found no water table in the 6.0 m it reached, and the report still rated the plot’s drainage as unfavourable.
So it proved. Once the dig was open, water seeped in and ponded across almost the whole excavation. We ordered a drainage well beside the seepage point and pumps to clear the standing water, and the foundations waited until it was gone. The waterproofing was approved as a mixed specification, each solution where it earned its place: on the foundation slab, a dimpled drainage membrane, blinding concrete and a sodium bentonite blanket; on the outer faces of the basement walls, bituminous emulsion and a 4 kg torch-on membrane. The perimeter drain went from 100 mm pipe to 200 mm, and the contractor was required to photograph the work as it went in. A full basement under a plot that will not drain leaves no room for shortcuts.
How it is built
The foundations are embedded in rock from roughly 4.0 m down. Above that, reinforced concrete throughout: columns and walls, a 30 cm waffle slab (25+5) with void formers, retaining walls to basement and pool, and 30 cm solid slabs for the pool shell. The envelope is a traditional cavity wall — a half-brick outer leaf of perforated brick, air gap, mineral wool and an inner leaf of double-hollow brick. Nothing eye-catching about it. It is still the sensible answer in Málaga when the effort has to reach the interior as well.
Before work began, bids from four contractors were compared — one of them for the structure alone — and the contract went to Hermanos Campano, S.L. Work started in January 2025. With the site already open, an amendment to the basic design reorganised the ground floor — a more generous entrance hall, a smaller garage, a new pergola-covered outdoor kitchen — and the basement. The build is still under way. There is no handover certificate yet, so the images here are of the project rather than of the finished house.
The interiors, specified by name
The interiors are Klic’s as well, and not as a mood board: there are drawings for ceilings, kitchen, bathrooms, bespoke furniture, lighting and air conditioning. Floors inside and out, the staircase and the pool are all Dekton Nacre in a Kraftizen finish — the same material on both sides of the threshold, so the floor does not change when you step out. The wet walls take the colour: Tropic Turquesa in the ground-floor cloakroom, Vouge Musgo 6.5×20 in the main bathroom, Sahn Green 10×10 in the guest shower and Sahn Sand 10×10 in the kitchen, all from Tau Cerámica. Tiling runs to the ceiling at 2.50 m and is mitred at the corners. It is more work to build, and it shows.
The palette is the one that ended up giving the house its name: micro-cement, timber, stone, fabric, brass, rush and coloured zellige, with anthracite on the columns so the structure still reads. The kitchen is organised around a marble island with Wishbone chairs. In the sitting area, a built-in arched bookcase makes the wall the main event. The cloakroom pairs green cladding with a pedestal basin. And the terrace, with its pool and slatted pergola, is the room that will get the most use.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Detached single-family house with pool, on basement, ground and first floors
- Use: Residential
- Location: Colinas del Limonar, Málaga (Spain)
- Design year: 2021
- Construction year: 2025
- Status: Under construction (started January 2025)
- Built area: 700 m²
- Featured programme: kitchen with marble island, sitting area with arched bookcase, cloakroom with pedestal basin and green cladding, terrace with pool and pergola
- Units: 1 house, part of a two-house commission on adjoining plots taken through planning and built in parallel
- Client: Private developer
- Architecture studio: Klic Arquitectos
- Building contractor: Hermanos Campano, S.L.
- Site supervision (dirección de obra): Klic Arquitectos
- Construction management (dirección de ejecución): Vicente Bejarano Reyes, building engineer (arquitecto técnico)
- Structural engineering: In-house at Klic: 30 cm waffle slab (25+5), reinforced concrete columns and walls
- MEP engineering: In-house at Klic, modelled in 3D
- Interior design: Klic Arquitectos
- Geotechnical survey: Laboratorio Conanma (Loja, Granada)
- Klic services: Concept design, basic design and building permit application, stamped construction (execution) project, interior design, health and safety study, and site supervision
- Team: Juan Alejandro Goñi Uriarte (COA Málaga reg. 1206) and Ruth Buján Varela (COA Málaga reg. 1333)
Other projects in Colinas del Limonar
- Casa Colinas del Limonar: contemporary single-family home with pool, pergola and a composition of white volumes.
- Villa Sand: 700 m² single-family home with elevated pool, cantilevers and timber lattice.
