{"id":12821,"date":"2026-03-31T10:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/residencial-zalea\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T11:25:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T09:25:33","slug":"residencial-zalea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/en\/blog\/residencial-zalea\/","title":{"rendered":"Residencial Zalea \u00b7 Multi-family housing in Torreblanca (Fuengirola)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 (M\u00e1laga), on a south-facing plot with open views over the Mediterranean and the coastline between Fuengirola and Mijas. The work, though, began at the town hall rather than the drawing board: the plot carried a 2004 building licence (licencia de obras<\/em>) for 36 dwellings, suspended in 2005, reinstated in 2007, and never formally closed either way. Before drawing anything, we needed to know what was still valid.<\/p>\n

The brief: read the file before you draw<\/h2>\n

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 there: the third phase of the development held building licence OM 26\/2004 for 36 dwellings over three floors, with a basement for storage and parking, 3,446.40 m\u00b2 of floor area of which 3,155.01 m\u00b2 counted against the plot\u2019s allowance, and a 44.22 m\u00b2 pool.<\/p>\n

The same review clarified the earlier phases. Phase one was finished and held its first-occupation licence (licencia de primera ocupaci\u00f3n<\/em>), roughly the Spanish equivalent of a completion certificate. Phase two had been built under OM 32\/03 but never obtained one. Phase three carried suspension order 12791\/05 of 7 December, issued after a neighbour\u2019s objection; the design was amended and the suspension lifted in 2007.<\/p>\n

After that, nothing new on file. The licence gave six months to start work and twenty to finish it, and lapsed if no extension was requested. We could find no record of the developer withdrawing, and no lapse proceedings either. This is where purchasers of development land tend to get caught out, and that risk is worth weighing before commissioning a design rather than after.<\/p>\n

Site constraints<\/h2>\n

The second finding concerned area. The plot measures 2,755 m\u00b2 on the cadastre (Catastro<\/em>), against the 3,583.26 m\u00b2 recorded in the licence documentation. The difference comes from a change to the right-hand boundary that was never reflected in the licence, so the permitted floor area survived intact on a smaller plot. With a declared footprint of 1,100 m\u00b2, there is not much room left to move the building around.<\/p>\n

The real constraint, though, was access. The municipal architect repeatedly flagged the difficulty of vehicle access from the lower street and took the view that it had to be resolved from above, which means negotiating with the neighbours. That is not a drafting problem. It is a prior agreement on which the 1,157 m\u00b2 of basement parking depend, and with them a good part of the scheme.<\/p>\n

The scheme: 36 dwellings on a 2004 licence<\/h2>\n

We chose not to reinvent the brief. The scheme keeps the 36 dwellings already licensed and sits within the BA-2 ordinance of the Fuengirola local plan (PGOU<\/em>) \u2014 open block, subtype 2 \u2014 with three floors above ground, accommodation within the roof and a single basement level. That gives 3,446 m\u00b2 above ground and 1,157 m\u00b2 of basement, served by four common staircases and with no internal light wells: every flat looks outwards.<\/p>\n

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 pick up low winter sun while keeping rooms out of the worst of the summer heat. The terraces are deep enough to work as genuine extensions of the living room and main bedroom, and the cantilevers and setbacks that create them double as passive shading, in line with the Spanish building code\u2019s energy chapter (CTE-DB-HE) for collective housing in climate zone A4. The building\u2019s own form does the work of a sunshade.<\/p>\n

Finishes were chosen for how they behave in the salt-laden air of the M\u00e1laga 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 allowed for cooling to be pre-installed but no heating system, while the intended scope for the technical design stage included photovoltaics and electric vehicle charging.<\/p>\n

Where the project stopped<\/h2>\n

On 15 January 2023 we visited and photographed the plot. The scheme was on the drawing board in those same days \u2014 the drawing is dated 12 January \u2014 and from it came the two exterior visualisations shown here, produced in-house and dated 25 and 26 January: a compact white volume, stepped terraces, and an outdoor communal area of 1,000 m\u00b2 of lawn and low-water Mediterranean planting, 300 m\u00b2 of concrete paving and 124 m\u00b2 of specialist surfaces, with a sun deck around a 100 m\u00b2 pool. The 2004 licence had allowed 44.22 m\u00b2 of water; the proposal more than doubled it, on the view that in a 36-dwelling building the shared outdoor space is what every owner actually gets to enjoy.<\/p>\n

In June 2024 we assembled the full team \u2014 building services engineering, telecoms and technical architecture \u2014 and put forward an integrated project management proposal: concept and technical design, services, telecoms infrastructure, health and safety documentation, licence handling and site supervision, with construction planned to start in 2025. The project went no further than scheme design. The images here are volumetric study renders, not photographs of a finished building, and it is only fair to say so.<\/p>\n

Gallery<\/h2>\n
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Project data<\/h2>\n