Villa CP

Set on a 60-acre hilltop estate in the Gavarres nature reserve between Girona and the Costa Brava, with views to the Mediterranean and the Pyrenees on either side, Villa CP is a 17th-century Catalan farmhouse rebuilt as a sustainable eco-villa by its owner-architect.

Designed by Co Govers of Barcelona's Zest Architecture, who lives in the house with her family, the renovation preserved the protected stone exterior while inserting a new Corten steel structure behind it, lining the walls with Claytec clay plaster, insulating with cork harvested from the surrounding forest, and adding geothermal climate control with reed-bed water filtration. The project was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014 and has since featured in Wallpaper, Dezeen, and Dwell.