NØRA Studio designed Casa en Bateria in Mallorca, Spain

NØRA Studio designed a single-family house in Sa Pobla, Mallorca, with two floors, a spacious patio, and a pool. The design incorporates a main bay and a smaller compartmentalized bay, serving as the functional core of the house and allowing flexibility in accommodating various uses. The house utilizes a “battery” scheme, including the facade, and features a gallery on the south side that provides thermal regulation by protecting against direct radiation in summer and capturing heat in winter.

-text by the authors

In Sa Pobla we find this single-family house, built on an elongated plot between party walls. The house has two floors and a large patio with garden and pool.

Both the ground floor and the first floor share a simple operating scheme. It is a main bay in the longitudinal direction -the space can be opened from the street to the courtyard- accompanied by a second smaller and more compartmentalized bay, divided into pieces that develop the different functions of the house. This second bay is the “battery” that gives life to the house, serving it of all required functionality and endowing the main bay with “the luxury of the emptiness“. This void is now a wildcard that will be able to flexibly accommodate more public uses (connecting with the street) and more private (with the courtyard) in addition to enlarging the sleeping spaces to a point where the idea of bedroom as such is diluded on the first floor.

This “battery” scheme is applied to the entire house, reaching even the façade, where the elevation reveals its secrets through a very marked materiality.

On the other hand, on the south side, where we find the courtyard, a gallery protects the building from direct radiation in summer, creating a chimney that evacuates excess temperature, while in winter it captures as much energy as possible in the form of heat, creating a thermal area that has the ability to release hot air at a slower pace, as required by the home.

Plans

Facts & Credits

Project title: En bateria

Architects: NØRA Studio

Location: Sa Pobla, Mallorca

Surface area: 3208 m²

Lead Architects: Marina Munar Bonnin, Rafel Capó Quetglas, Pau del Campo Montoliu, Luca Lliteras Roldán.

Dates: 2022-2023

Photography: Ricard López