Stepped volumes create panoramic terraces for Villa 95 by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos

Article Archive
1748071285831.webp
Zigzagging stone volumes offer vantage points across the landscape surrounding this coastal villa in Andalusia, completed by Spanish studio Fran Silvestre Arquitectos.

Named Villa 95, the home is located within the Altos de Valderrama development in the resort of Sotogrande, where it sits on a sloped, forested plot with views of the southern coast.

Fran Silvestre Arquitectos responded to this awkwardly-shaped plot by dividing the home into three elongated volumes that step up the hillside in a zigzag arrangement, creating space in the centre for a large terrace specifically requested by the client.
1748071308934.webp
Fran Silvestre Arquitectos has completed a coastal villa in Andalusia
"This configuration allows the project to rest gently on the terrain, following its natural slope and orienting itself to capture the best light and views," the studio told Dezeen.

"One of the main challenges was to integrate a rooftop belvedere, requested by the client as a social space. To achieve this, it was essential to carefully control the sightlines and ensure privacy from neighbouring properties," it added.

The spaces of Villa 95 were organised according to its three volumes. In the highest volume, the bedrooms are lined by a glass wall and oriented to overlook the rooftop terrace, onto which they have access via sliding glass doors.
1748071330249.webp
Three stone volumes make up the villa
Beneath this expansive terrace, the central volume contains the day areas, with a large living, dining and kitchen area and office fronted by another glass wall that frames views towards the coast.

Sheltered by the overhang of the terrace above, the living area's panoramic glass wall opens onto a secondary terrace with a swimming pool that sits on the home's lowest volume.

At the bottom of the sloping site, the lowest volume is partially dug into the landscape, housing a garage and technical areas alongside a wellness space overlooking a narrow courtyard.

"The way the volumes conform to the terrain – lightly and precisely – creates a quiet architecture that feels as though it has always belonged," the studio explained.

"The vertical circulation cores are located at the intersection points between volumes, allowing fluid movement throughout the house," it added.
1748071368981.webp
A glass wall flanks the living space
Finished in pale stone cladding and with largely minimal, white interiors, the villa was designed to be "timeless" and flexible, with the possibility of housing multiple generations in the future.

"The choice of materials was driven by a desire for timelessness and connection with the site," the studio said. "Local natural materials such as stone and wood were used in warm tones with subtle grey hues, enhancing continuity between exterior and interior spaces."
1748071390427.webp
The home is finished with minimalist interiors
Fran Silvestre Arquitectos was founded in 2005 by architect Fran Silvestre. The studio previously used a similar organisational strategy for a home in Alicante, which also zigzags up its site in response to the topography.

Its other projects include a minimalist home behind a historic facade in Valencia and, nearby, a residence with a walkable T-shaped roof.
 
im trying to find something nice about it but its so fucking BLAND, dude
its so bland. its this big fuckin rock set in some of the prettiest land you can imagine and its BLAAAAAAAAAND and lifeless. its like someone created a polygon mesh in blender and didnt bother to apply any texture. my skin starts crawling when i imagine walking inside that totally empty and barren fucking box of a house
 
im trying to find something nice about it but its so fucking BLAND, dude
The handrail built into the wall is a nice touch otherwise it's as soulless as can be expected for modern architecture. White white, cream, off white and more white. Uber boring, where are the value shifts? Guessing they rendered windows as black / grey in their sketches and were cool with it? They could do so much more even relying on geometrical shapes.
"The choice of materials was driven by a desire for timelessness
Why is timelessness even a goal in arch? Methods or shape language used for the construction are going to inform an era or a classifiction, that's how the whole fucking thing work.
and connection with the site," the studio said.
Why not build a hobbit house then? Or just use some curves. That's a zero on the intent matching the result and looking at that big space with a walkable roof for the second part, I'd put money down it's going to be a leaky mess like all the other big names architect houses within 5 years.
 
What if I don’t want my bedroom to have a glass wall onto a terrace where other people are? Where’s the air flow through? What keeps it cool with massive glass windows set facing south in a hot climate?
Why does it look like three shoeboxes dropped haphazardly onto a wasteland? Where is the shade on the terrace? It’s just a blinding white slab. That’s not nice to sit out on surely?
 
Last edited:
The handrail built into the wall is a nice touch otherwise it's as soulless as can be expected for modern architecture. White white, cream, off white and more white. Uber boring, where are the value shifts? Guessing they rendered windows as black / grey in their sketches and were cool with it? They could do so much more even relying on geometrical shapes.

Why is timelessness even a goal in arch? Methods or shape language used for the construction are going to inform an era or a classifiction, that's how the whole fucking thing work.

Why not build a hobbit house then? Or just use some curves. That's a zero on the intent matching the result and looking at that big space with a walkable roof for the second part, I'd put money down it's going to be a leaky mess like all the other big names architect houses within 5 years.
I looked into hobbit holes a while back and the biggest problems with them are drainage and long term structural integrity of the hole as the ground slowly shifts, especially in geologically active areas. They just need to be designed and built with those factors in mind.
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: XYZpdq Jr.
im trying to find something nice about it but its so fucking BLAND, dude
its so bland. its this big fuckin rock set in some of the prettiest land you can imagine and its BLAAAAAAAAAND and lifeless. its like someone created a polygon mesh in blender and didnt bother to apply any texture. my skin starts crawling when i imagine walking inside that totally empty and barren fucking box of a house
What if I don’t want my bedroom to have a glass wall onto a terrace where other people are? Where’s the air flow through? What keeps it cool with massive glass windows set facing south in a hot climate?
Why does it look like three shoeboxes dropped haphazardly onto a wasteland? Where is the shade on the terrace? It’s just a blinding white slab. That’s not nice to sit out on surely?
it's frank lloyd wright shit. I'm not as educated and articulate on architecture but there's something about this guy's work that's been exalted by the mainstream postmodern establishment and all of his stuff is just really bad. I recall Deus Ex Human Revolution's art design having a repeating motif of multiple layers of transparent glass to give the player the illusion of there being more space in a given area than there actually was - and i think that's what Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture gimmick was. Making small minecraft houses that feel like medium houses. But the spaces are too small so they feel cramped and it's the kind of spatial design i expect to find in video games or in public spaces, not the kind of thing that makes sense in a private setting. these are the houses you have dinner parties in on a lake, not the kind of place you raise a family.

lloyd wright.webp

I do greatly appreciate the attention given to visual texture and color in the architecture of these buildings and how they were clearly built around the limitations of using cheap readily available materials in the most pleasing way possible - but at the end of the day these are made out of fucking cinder blocks. they're great cheap ticky tacky houses but they've been exalted to something beyond cheap commodity to simulate affluence because the postmodern world couldn't maintain the baby boom and ended up not having a use for these things.

They're hallucinated manifestations from a failed uptopian timeline where the middle class could afford these things, raised to the status of art by the millenialist faggot wannabe bourgeoise - the Waltons and their ilk. People who are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to glorify a bunch of retarded tasteless postmodern hacks because they think living in the 1960's version of a shitty ticky tacky house in 2025 makes them look like they have status and culture
 
Some lucky Russian Oligarch is going to be thrilled to own the place. Its even shaped like a Z for their pleasure
 
Wow, it looks like someone welded a bunch of shipping containers together. It's impressive how stupid this is
I've seen a few of these crop up on real estate websites in Australia over the past few years. One of them is literally that, a couple of shipping containers stuck on top of each other.
 
Back