The Olive Houses
High up in the Tramuntana Mountains of Mallorca with views overlooking the Mediterranean Sea we have built two small off-grid houses. The houses are surrounded in all directions by thousand year old olive trees standing on man-made terraces of dry stacked stone, where only the wind and the bells of the grassing sheep can be heard. The incredible scenic mountain area is one of the most beautiful examples we have on earth of how well wild and human-made nature can intertwine seamlessly, a rare example where Man has given more beauty – than he has taken away from nature – which brought it into the Unesco World Heritage list.
Photography by © Piet Albert Goethals
The houses blends into its surroundings as seamlessly and sensitive as possible into this magical setting by first breaking the needed footprint into two, while also reusing an old stone structure for the The Purple House a house for cooking and dinning, covered in a specific shade of purple stucco; the complimentary color to the dark side of the olive leaf. The reusing of the existing structure meant that only one new structure was needed which was even build into the existing terraces making the structure practically invisible being half underground, which keeps the house cool in the summer and warmer in winter. Photography by © Piet Albert Goethals
 
In one end of the new structure a vaulted ceiling dissolves seamlessly into a huge skylight under which a hidden shower is found nex...