{"id":15201,"date":"2021-06-05T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T12:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/single-family-house-proposal-la-cala-de-mijas\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T11:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T09:26:17","slug":"single-family-house-proposal-la-cala-de-mijas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/en\/blog\/single-family-house-proposal-la-cala-de-mijas\/","title":{"rendered":"Single-family house proposal in La Cala de Mijas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 or comfort. That line set the terms for this single-family house in La Cala de Mijas (M\u00e1laga) \u2014 485.38 m\u00b2 of built area on a 1,797 m\u00b2 plot. The job was not to fill the plot, but to decide what stayed out of it.<\/p>\n

The brief: a set of handwritten notes<\/h2>\n

The background paperwork on the plot is dated 13 March 2020; the scheme design itself, May. Between those two dates one document governs: the client\u2019s own written notes. They asked for something modern, mostly white with a few elements to break it up, plenty of glass and as much daylight as possible. And, set down in writing, the trade-off that orders everything else \u2014 quality and comfort before floor area.<\/p>\n

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<\/em>), the sector planning documents, the topographical survey and the cadastral record (Catastro<\/em>): 1,797 m\u00b2, recorded at the time as undeveloped land.<\/p>\n

The house, floor by floor<\/h2>\n

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 m\u00b2 on the ground floor, 112.55 m\u00b2 on the first, 86.50 m\u00b2 of basement and 13.91 m\u00b2 of roof access \u2014 351.74 m\u00b2 in all. Add the covered but unenclosed space \u2014 porches, gallery, car port and terraces \u2014 and it comes to 485.38 m\u00b2 of built area, 268.30 m\u00b2 of it usable.<\/p>\n

The ground floor holds the daytime rooms \u2014 entrance hall, a 24.05 m\u00b2 living room, a 24.48 m\u00b2 kitchen-dining room \u2014 plus the things the brief asked for and most plans squeeze: a 13.60 m\u00b2 study, a larder, a laundry and a store. Upstairs, three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom; the main one 16.51 m\u00b2 with a dressing room. The lift does not stop on the first floor. It carries on to the roof, as the notes asked.<\/p>\n

The basement the client did not want<\/h2>\n

On this the notes were blunt: avoid a basement if at all possible and, failing that, keep the garage at ground level so water never becomes a problem. Fair enough \u2014 but with the full programme on the table, losing the basement meant spreading the house sideways and eating into the part of the plot the layout keeps for the daytime rooms and the pool.<\/p>\n

So we cut it back to what a basement is genuinely good for: 86.50 m\u00b2 holding a 36.49 m\u00b2 garage, a store, a lobby, the lift and a 19.44 m\u00b2 plant room. Not one habitable room below ground. It stops being an extra floor and goes back to being the place for the car and the machinery.<\/p>\n

Shade, water and half a plot left alone<\/h2>\n

The area schedule describes this house better than the renders do. Of the 1,797 m\u00b2 plot, 888.99 m\u00b2 are left in their natural state; 570.26 m\u00b2 are hard landscaping, 41.23 m\u00b2 lawn or planting, and there are 239.95 m\u00b2 of masonry retaining wall. The pool has a 59.40 m\u00b2 tank and a 70.13 m\u00b2 water surface. Porches, gallery, car port and terraces come to 133.64 m\u00b2 \u2014 over a quarter of the built area has no fa\u00e7ade at all, only shade. On this coast, that is the design.<\/p>\n

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 never went for the architects\u2019 association stamp (visado<\/em>), never went in for planning permission (licencia de obras<\/em>) and never reached site. The renders and the video were produced in-house, and they are all that is left of it.<\/p>\n

Gallery<\/h2>\n
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\"Main<\/figure>\n
\"Volumetric<\/figure>\n
\"Terrace<\/figure>\n
\"Double-height<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Project data<\/h2>\n