Casa Mínima

The Valles Pasiegos are a set of deep green valleys in inland Cantabria, on the wet Atlantic side of northern Spain, settled for centuries by the Pasiegos, a pastoral people whose stone cabins, the cabañas pasiegas, still dot the hillsides in their thousands. The land is steep, grazed and almost permanently green, fed by Atlantic rain, with rivers, waterfalls and beech woods between the meadows. It is a quiet, little-travelled corner of green Spain with nothing in common with the dry south, and yet the Cantabrian coast, with its open beaches and cliffs, is only forty minutes away. You can stand in the wet mountains in the morning and be at the sea by lunch.

Casa Mínima began as one of those abandoned pasiega cabins. Estudio Mínima, a small family practice from El Escorial near Madrid that builds ecological and Passivhaus homes, restored it as their own showroom, a way to put their philosophy into a house you can actually live in. The old stone walls were kept and the rest rebuilt to certified Passivhaus standard, which means the interior holds a stable temperature on very little energy, the air stays fresh, and the light is filtered rather than harsh. Two bedrooms, three bathrooms and an open living space are finished in natural materials and kept deliberately bare, with large windows framing the valley like changing pictures. The studio rents the house whole, for up to six, as both an income and an argument: this is what a low-impact house can feel like.