Casa Ter

Casa Ter sits in the Alt Empordà, in Catalonia's Girona province, on a small rise just outside one of the area's liveliest towns, close enough to walk in five minutes. This is a landscape of holm oaks, pines, farm fields and olive trees, carrying the scent of Mediterranean scrub, and it sits between three landscapes at once, sea, mountain and open field. The coast, the medieval towns of the Empordà and the wine country around it are all within easy reach.

The house was designed by MESURA, an award-winning Barcelona architecture studio, using materials sourced from right around it: concrete and stones from the River Ter, which gives the house its name, and handmade ceramic tiles from La Bisbal, a town famous for its pottery. The rooms split into two long volumes meeting in an L, one public, holding the kitchen, dining and living space, the other private, holding the bedrooms and bathrooms. Upstairs, a traditional Catalan stone vault, a centuries-old form found in old farmhouses across the region, houses the best bedroom and its best view. Large folding windows let the ground floor open fully to the garden, blurring inside and out, and outside there's a raft-style pool, a wild garden, and several shaded spots to eat under the holm oaks. The house runs on solar panels and geothermal air conditioning, and won the Tile of Spain Award in 2020.