Sitting sculpturally in its arid and unaltered surrounding landscape, Casa M is subtly disguised amongst its terrain.
Emerging from the ground some three years after the initial sketch, the resulting structure draws on the key essentialist principles that underpin
“Casa M is intended to be a shrine, a sanctuary, a Domus in which I can feel protected yet inspired, lulled by an unspoiled vegetation, so typical of the area,” Vincent says when describing the house’s serving purpose. For him, it’s an argument for eliminating noise and clutter from one’s life, to quite literally
Rising from the earth, a
“The remoteness and tranquillity of the area, the unspoiled vegetation, the pristine beaches, the umbrella pine trees, the simple life and the close rapport with nature – that is what drew me to this place.”
– Vincent Van Duysen
“The bone-tinted hue vanishes into the sandy surrounds, where the compound achieves the opposite effect of its Brutalist forebears,” Vincent says, which tended to overpower the landscape. The materiality instead, embraces the surrounds unspoiled nature, “representing the texture-obsessed, materials-driven strain of warm brutalism that has come to define my work,” he adds.
In its own way, the location spoke to its creator well before his response became clear. “
Monolithic in parts and softened through textural timber, Vincent says the house is meant to take in the elements–
As a contemporary to previous iconic concrete structures such as Can Lis in Mallorca by Jørn Utzon and Casa Luis Barragan, Casa M opens its own conversation with locality, its history and its people, extending from the earth in its own wonderous way.
This feature originally appeared in est Magazine issue #41.
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