Home renovation in Cadaques on Costa Brava

Cadaques sits at the eastern edge of the Costa Brava, where the Tramuntana wind carves the coastline and whitewashed volumes have defined the vernacular for centuries. Our studio approached this 220 sqm renovation as a dialogue between that centuries-old Mediterranean intelligence and a fully contemporary ecological ambition - a home that breathes, harvests, and regenerates in equal measure. The client, a design-literate family with a deep respect for the Catalan landscape, wished for a residence that felt both rooted in its coastal setting and quietly ahead of its time.

The material palette was assembled with the same ecological rigour as the technical systems. Hempcrete insulation fills the cavity of every exterior wall - a bio-composite of hemp hurds and lime binder that delivers a thermal mass coefficient perfectly calibrated to the Costa Brava's mild winters (average January minimum 5 degrees Celsius) and long, dry summers. Hempcrete is hygroscopic, meaning it breathes with the building and self-regulates internal humidity - a quality of particular value in a coastal microclimate where salt air and Mediterranean damp are constant companions.

Exposed timber structures recovered from the existing building have been upcycled and reintegrated throughout - beams, frames, and joinery elements that carry the memory of the original house while receiving new purpose. This upcycled wood structure strategy reduced material waste and embedded a warm, tactile continuity into spaces that might otherwise read as purely minimal.

Our studio designed the ventilation strategy as a layered system in which no single technology carries the full load. A network of sun tunnels pierces the roof plane and channels natural daylight deep into interior volumes that would otherwise rely on artificial sources - reducing both heat gain from conventional skylights and daytime electricity consumption. Below the slab, an underground recuperative ventilation circuit pre-conditions incoming air through earth-contact thermal exchange, arriving at the living spaces already tempered before any mechanical assistance is applied. Passive ventilation through carefully oriented openings captures the prevailing Tramuntana and sea breeze, while an air recirculation system recovers thermal energy from outgoing air streams. Together these four strategies work in concert - each one reinforcing the others - so that the building maintains comfort across the full Mediterranean seasonal range with minimal mechanical intervention.

The patio garden extends the bioclimatic logic outdoors - a curated planting palette of native Catalan species including rosemary, lavender, Aleppo pine, and cistus that require minimal irrigation and provide seasonal shade to south-facing glazing. The bioclimatic bio pool anchors the outdoor living zone - a natural swimming pool that filters water through planted reed beds and gravel substrate, free of chlorine, visually indistinguishable from a reflecting garden pond, and fully integrated into the ecological water cycle of the site. With Cadaques receiving over 2,700 hours of sunshine annually and the outdoor season running from April through October, the patio and pool together extend the liveable footprint of the house by the equivalent of an additional room.

In the end, true luxury on this coast is not measured in surface area or specification lists - it is expressed in the quality of silence that good ecology makes possible.