House in Cantabria

A low budget rural studio for the contemporary countryside, 2026

The countryside in Cantabria is blooming! Many are attracted by the beauty of landscape, good weather, food and touristic attractions. The Spanish and many Europeans choose this region either to retire or for having a home away from home. Within short driving distance they can experience different types of landscape: mountains and ocean, natural parks, rural-agricultural farm land with it's animals and various vegetation, but also cities on the North coast such as Bilbao, Santander, San Sebastian, Oviedo. The area is also accessible from a financial point of view, with many investing in land and real estate here. Therefore the idea proposed by this project - The Modern Bungalow - fits quite well in this environment. Designed as a minimal intervention, the project aims for flexibility and good quality of interior space, and was made to be produced in small steps as a long term gradual investment. Best fit for manufacturing is the warehouse from where it can be transported in parts and assembled on site.

The process of design went back and forwards, starting with a sketch of a plan, later refined using 3D models of furniture, storage spaces and the building envelope, which  came later, more as a consequence. For interior design was important to use models that exist as real products, to define areas with accuracy. Vegetation and furniture have been moved and rotated several times, also influencing the position of the windows and the depths and partitions of the storage units. The design has ben constantly evaluated in 3D, by walking inside from space to space, and by rendering it in different light, with different materials.

The position of furniture follows its own logic, independent from the exterior walls. No interior walls were used in order to maximize the space. Different areas of the house, for cooking, dining, working, playing, sleeping are sustained using the right furniture and light. Eyesight directions are allowed or blocked, linking the full space as a whole, and dividing it in areas with different characters. 

This approach increases the flexibility of space, allows further customisation, expanding or contracting the areas as life evolves inside.

The interior design is also playful and a bit messy. Life and comfort are not constrained, there is no stress, things are kept where they are needed, where they happen to be. The only thing fixed in the center of the house is the olive tree. For it to grow higher and have enough sunlight, the height of the ceiling increases above it.

Special care has been put into the color palette, the built elements being highly desaturated, almost white, and a light gray has been chosen for the floor to ground the space. The true colors, green and orange, come from the interior vegetation and the color of the light, because natural colors are the most balanced. Colors for the furniture have been picked from the catalog, to make the design look and feal feasible. 

To achieve flexibility for the electrical appliances, lights and plugs, a raised floor is most essential. It offers 150mm of space for cables and for the water heating system of the house that covers all the floor area. No carpets are used, only the warm glossy concrete tiled surface. 

For sustainability, the heat is preserved with two layers of 100mm of insulation within the exterior walls, triple glazed windows and 3 layers of insulation for the roof terrace. The floor is also insulated from the ground with two layers of insulation. A vapour barrier layer is wrapped all around the insulation to prevent problems with condensation.   

Usually exterior walls and windows are the most expensive to manufacture, therefore the geometry of the house is kept simple. This also simplifies the structural system, which is made of metallic poles and beams 100x100mm, 245 linear meters in total. To prevent thermal bridges, it is recommended to wrap the metallic elements with aerogel blankets. (€80 – €120 / m²). On the North and East sides the storage units can act as additional insulation. With all these principles followed, the energy consumption for heating can be kept very low. On a solar panel system with battery the house can become a positive energy building.