_20 YEARS OF NA XEMENA
NA
XEMENA
HOUSE
MINIMAL
VERNACULAR
location | Ibiza, España
year | 1997-2001-2003
area | 742.70 m2
Na Xemena House and the collection of outdoor furniture Na Xemena, both designed by Ramón Esteve, celebrate their 20th birthday.
Both the house and the furniture have become points of reference for the contemporary design. The collection, an icon of outdoor furniture, was designed by the architect following the same conceptual parameters as the house and was later produced by the family-run textile company Gandía Blasco.
BUILDING
A LANDSCAPE
The cultural and physical environment was a leading thread for the process of designing this house in Na Xemena Cove, Ibiza: the light, a landscape of rocks and junipers, the sea as horizon and the cliffs outlined against it.
AN
ENDLESS
POOL
Outside, the terraces and the pools are an extension of the same volumes that form the different parts of the house. The terrace is a platform that enhances the enjoyment of the sights, whereas the pool –formed by two volumes- serves as a link that increases this feeling.
This set of volumes, resulting from a strategy of fragmentation of the uses, allows a setting that reflects the orography of the place, so the dwelling seems to be naturally born from the landscape.
WHITE
ARCHITECTURE
The facades are white clean naked walls that collect the light through holes that follow an order according to the internal configuration, in such a way that there is more surface of solid walls than openings. From the inside, the windows frame a panoramic view of the pool, which looks like a water sheet that merges with the sea.
A CONNECTION
WITH VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE
The reference to vernacular construction is related to an architecture that is born from spontaneity and need but contains some codes that allow a growth of the dwelling that maintains a harmonious result.
“Na Xemena was the first design where I could firmly express my way of making architecture in several aspects: from the relation with the place, both physically and culturally, to the manipulation of the perception of the place in order to create a complete experience.”
Ramón Esteve
ARCHI
TECTURAL
ADN
Ramón Esteve thought the house, in its first building stage in 1996, for allowing a continuous growth based on its original guidelines, by means of creating a stylistic code that could later help to develop all the architecture, interior and product design. Thus, in 2001 and 2003 it was possible to add several cubic volumes arranged in a sequence of spaces of different dimensions that become larger during the promenade.
