Her husband was adamant: The investment manager would accept any place for a vacation home other than Ibiza, the Spanish island known far and wide for its wild nightlife, hedonistic discotheques, and celebrity sightings. “We started with the Hamptons, then Greece, and then Mallorca, because he plays golf, and it has plenty of courses,” says his ebullient wife, Emma Roig Askari, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair Spain, a TV commentator for Atresmedia, and a Christie’s ambassador. Her secret weapon was simple: to take her recalcitrant husband to Ibiza offseason, “when the valleys are full of flowers and there’s beautiful sunlight. Little by little, he got interested.”
Three years of diligent searching later, the London-based couple and their relieved grown children—“They were so happy that we’d finally decided on something”—found a mountainside to call their own. There, with Rolf Blakstad of Blakstad Design Consultants, an esteemed Ibiza firm founded in the 1950s, they began to build a dream house overlooking the sea and inspired by the island’s laid-back traditional style. What eventually emerged was a low, rambling white residence with enough bedrooms for family and friends and enough land to cultivate a garden of largely native Mediterranean plants, courtesy of British landscape guru Tania Compton, better known for her work at English country estates and being the contributing gardens editor of The World of Interiors, one of AD’s sister publications.
“As much as I love our house, the biggest pleasure is the garden,” Roig Askari says. “I’m a firm believer in the transcultural: Nothing is better than an expert from one country and culture working on a landscape in a completely different country.”
Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
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Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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SEA CHANGE
Trading Manhattan for Brooklyn, designer Robert Stilin soaks up new scenery indoors and out
HELLA, YES
Thirty years into her career, Dutch design star Hella Jongerius proves the best ideas-and objects are those that grow and transform along with us
GREEN GODDESS
From her perch in Lloyd Wright's 1927 home and studio in West Hollywood, Vicki von Holzhausen is spreading the gospel-and refining the science—of eco-friendly, plant-based materials
BOTH SIDES NOW
Celebrated for his fantastical, genderfluid fashions, designer Harris Reed brings the same rule-flouting approach to a petite London apartment
shades of eden
In her magical LA garden, artist Mimi Lauter contemplates the cycle of life and the rapturous power of color
CHARM SCHOOL
In the hands of Ashe Leandro, a historic New York City house gets a delightful makeover
mother nature
Taking inspiration from her own childhood memories, Jennifer Garner crafts a cozy California home and garden where she and her family can put down roots
Finnish Lines
Resurfaced by Hem, a postmodern Nordic icon is back on the shelves
Changed for Good
Blending architectural styles, the new movie Wicked ventures off the beaten yellow-brick path
Earth Tone
In Mexico's Valle de Guadalupe, a new wellness resort looks to the land