Majorca, Spain
Site-specific intervention at Jørn Utzon´s Can Lis house
The site intervention -Timeless- echoes to the dialogue between time, matter and the Mediterranean landscape of Majorca.
At the same time, the intervention pays homage to the expressiveness of the Marès limestone, a geological element that creates a varied coastal landscapes across the island. A series of contrasting landscapes that go from steep cliffs and erosional landforms. The limestone is the main element applied on vernacular details and building solutions that can be found in the local culture which has been reinterpreted by Utzon to conceive a timeless landscape-house
With the support of Utzon Foundation together with The Architecture Committee of the Danish Arts Foundation, I had the opportunity to inhabit and develop a series of site specific projects in Can Lis, the house that Jørn Utzon designed on a cliff on the Mediterranean island of Majorca. Can Lis was projected by Utzon in the early seventies, for him, his wife Lis and their son Kim, after ten years of intense work on Sydney Opera House. The house in Majorca is considered one of the most significant architectural buildings of the twentieth century, and since 2006, one of the main objectives of the Foundation, is to maintain the main function of the building for which it was conceived -inhabiting domestic space-, complemented by a series of architectural initiatives focused on researching and promoting the ideas of Jørn Utzon and the body of his work.
Can Lis could be defined as a landscape-house, where a sequence of spaces (patios, rooms, porches, massifs, openings, limits) are conceived as scenarios or living pavilions that dialogue with the cyclical sense of time and the constant natural transformation of Mediterranean landscape. House and landscape come together in a poetic vision that provides unique atmospheres and ritual-domestic spaces as source of meditation and continuous inspiration. A Landscape house conceived as experiential and metaphoric space that provides a framework to reflect about architecture, nature and life.
The phenomenological approach, the dialogue with the Mediterranean landscape and the traditional Majorcan architecture reinterpreted by Jørn Utzon in Can Lis, have been the main concepts and starting points that I propose for developing a series of site-specific interventions. With this approximation, the site-works emerged in response of my personal spatial perception of the house, in which every domestic activity -sleeping, cooking, reading, eating, walking- evokes a depth event and spatial experience. I have materialized those events into site-specific projects and sensory devices as interpretative links to the house. A series of site-interventions that explore the architectural space and the surrounding context through diverse media. At the same time, the works explore the local materials and artisan techniques that have been used in the house. The pieces are connected to place and time by applying nature -wind, sound, rain, flora, fauna, light, aromas, textures or natural cycles-. Essential elements for the project conception.
Project made with the support of Utzon Foundation and the Danish Arts Foundation Committee for Architecture.
