Hasta La Ideas

Textured concrete designed to withstand the Mediterranean climate defines Shift House, a tiered holiday home by Nomo Studio on the island of Menorca.

Shift House is formed of displaced rectangular volumes built into the hillside, finished with a facade of alternating striated concrete walls and continuous window bands.

The home’s rough concrete facades draw on the textural quality of local sandstone while mitigating the impact of high humidity and strong salty winds in the town of Es Mercadal where it is located.

Nomo Studio‘s plan is also arranged to respond to the Balearic climate and optimise views and outdoor spaces in the home, with a series of “decks” reminiscent of those found on a boat.

“The location and its direct surroundings dictate everything from shape to choice of materials, colours and textures,” Nomo Studio founder Karl Johan Nyqvist told Dezeen.

“Shift House has a clear will to maximise sea views and outdoor spaces. Its facade is built to resist strong sun, wind and humidity conditions,” he continued.

Interested in how the facades will age, the studio anticipates a patina that will enhance the building’s aesthetic over time.

“From ancient times, plot boundaries have been demarcated with walls made of staggered formless rocks,” Nyqvist explained. “This local technique called ‘dry-wall’, inspired the facade’s roughness reinterpreted with fluted concrete blocks.”

The form of Shift House was developed by the studio carrying out solar studies to determine the optimal displacement and orientation of floors to protect windows from direct sun.

It is spread across four levels, with the entrance at street level on the second floor. This is given over to the living spaces, with a generous wraparound terrace that features a swimming pool.

The first floor houses three bedrooms, whilst the basement level features a sunken patio that brings light and ventilation to the bottom three floors of the home.

Internally, the house has a palette of soft, natural materials, colours and textures, combining light wood, microcement, polished white-concrete floors and off-white plaster walls.

Shift House is crowned with a rooftop terrace that offers panoramic views of the Balearic Sea.

“In this island context, where the sea is part of the people’s daily life, we also drew the analogy between the architecture and navigation,” said Nyqvist.

“[We created] a 360-degree terrace that allows you to walk around the top floor as if it was the gunwale of a boat, and [connected] its rooftop viewing platform through an outdoor stair,” he continued.

Nomo Studio was founded by Nyqvist with Alicia Casals, with studios in Barcelona, Madrid and Stockholm.

The studio has completed several projects in Menorca, with others including a house with stepped patios and terraces carved into it and a residence composed of stacked, angular boxes.

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