Going Solo

In remote Spain, Mary Gaudin discovers architecture that’s worth travelling for.

- Mary Gaudin

Chilean architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen’s practice is intellectual and rigorous, emotional and playful in equal measures. Through their practice, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, they have an almost taxonomic approach to architecture. They repeat forms with the idea that, at least conceptually, they’re producing nothing new. In this way, their projects are connected; part of a progression. They rethink aspects of one project in the next – referencing previous work, but without pastiche. In a few residential designs, they’ve explored the notion of a central void: leaving void as void, filling it with a staircase, leaving it open to the elements. At Solo Pezo in Cretas, north-east Spain, they’ve again explored the theme. This time the void is filled with a square pool in the centre of a tiled courtyard.

Solo Pezo is the first in the Solo Houses series of architecturally designed holiday homes, an ambitious project by French property developer Christian Bourdais and cultural events organiser Eva Albarran. “Our idea for the Solo Houses was to work with architects as you would work with artists when commissioning large-scale installations, to give them a maximum of artistic freedom,” says Bourdais.

Only two of the houses have been built – Solo Pezo in 2013 and Solo Office, by Belgium architects Office: Kersten Geers David Van Severen, in 2014.