A Whimsical Reuse explores refined architectural transformations where history is reinterpreted through poetic interventions and contemporary craft. Forgotten spaces gain new life, revealing a dialogue between memory, material, and contemporary ways of living.
Son Martorell, completed in 2026 by idearch studio, restores a lloc, a traditional Menorcan farmstead dating from 1886. Long abandoned and split by successive alterations into two independent units, the main house and former cattle barn are approached as a “useful ruin”: through careful subtraction, what remains becomes a stable base for a new layer of occupation. A double-height entrance void, a light staircase and walkway, and new cuts through the marès walls organise the house as a fluid sequence of spaces, while openings respond to climate rather than composition. The result is an act of continuity in which land, memory and transformation coexist.
Son Martorell is set within a Menorcan rural estate, a lloc: a traditional agricultural holding historically tied to farming and livestock.
The llocs themselves embody a way of inhabiting and shaping the landscape. Their architecture is inseparable from their environment and built directly from local resources—marès stone, clay, dry-stone walls, orientation, shade, and wind.
The ensemble is composed of the main house, a former cattle barn, and a surrounding landscape structured through dry-stone walls, paths, and native vegetation.
The original buildings, dating from 1886, had fallen into advanced disrepair after years of successive alterations. These transformations even split the main house internally into two independent units, profoundly altering its original configuration and dissolving the spatial unity that once defined the whole.
The project begins with the intention of restoring the deep connection between architecture, landscape, and memory, understanding the intervention not as an isolated gesture, but as part of a territory slowly shaped over time.
The new use of the house and its immediate surroundings seeks to preserve the essence of the traditional estate that has always defined Son Martorell.
Rather than reconstructing an absent image, the project works with what remains, revealing its latent potential—programmatic, material, and landscape-related.
The accumulated transformations and traces of time are not erased, but accepted as part of the building’s history, allowing it to continue evolving from its own condition.
The construction strategy is based on careful subtraction and recovery.
Deteriorated elements are removed, non-structural partitions are cleared, and compromised roofs and slabs are taken down.
What remains is a “useful ruin”: a stable spatial and material base capable of supporting a new layer of occupation.
New architectural elements are then introduced to reorganise the house.
The entrance is defined by a double-height void that becomes the spatial heart of the project, organising circulation.
A light staircase and walkway unfold within this space, wrapping around the existing stone wall, which is understood both as structure and as a material memory of the building.
From this central core, the different levels are continuously connected. The new interventions do not compete with the existing fabric, but rather engage with it through precision and lightness.
A detailed reading of the existing masonry guided a selective cleaning process to recover, where possible, the presence of the original marès stone.
Where conservation was not viable, lime-based mortars and tiling are used to resolve wet areas with material continuity.
The project draws on the traditional logic of building in Menorca, where climate and place prevail over form.
The positioning of new openings responds to this reading of the landscape rather than compositional rules, capturing light, framing views, and bringing the outside in.
To the south, the main living spaces open fully to the landscape through floor-to-ceiling glazing.
To the north, service areas and wet cores are placed behind a more recessed façade, where smaller openings act as a buffer against the prevailing Tramontana winds.
Inside, new openings cut through the marès walls act as thresholds between rooms. The house is organised as a continuous sequence of spaces, where corridors disappear in favour of fluid transitions and direct spatial experience.
The project is rooted in ideas of continuity, permanence, and dialogue with an existing place shaped by generations.
Son Martorell is not an act of rupture, but one of continuity—where land, memory, and transformation coexist within a single architectural narrative.
About idearch studio
idearch is an architecture studio founded in 2009 by Syra Abella and Joaquín Mosquera, working across a wide range of scales and programmes.
Over the years, the studio has developed architectural and interior design projects spanning residential, commercial, office, and public uses, with the aim of giving each work a clear identity rooted in simplicity and in the essential values of architecture. Its clients range from public institutions to private developers.
The studio’s work has been recognised with numerous national and international awards and selections, including the COAM Award 2019, the Spanish Council of Architects Awards 2022, the BigMat International Architecture Award 2021, the FAD Awards for Architecture and Interior Design 2021, and the XV Hispalyt Awards 2017/2019.
Facts & Credits
Project title Son Martorell
Typology Architecture, Residential, Renovation
Location Menorca, Spain
Completion year 2026
Built Area 420m2 house | 41 m2 barn
Architecture idearch studio
Team Syra Abella Bule, Joaquín Mosquera Casares
Quantity surveyor and construction manager Diego Florit Martínez
Structural engineer Bernabéu Ingenieros
Building contractor Construcciones Valcárcel y Méndez
Photography María Missaglia