Signature homes: the luxury of living in a work of art

Our home is unique, even if we follow the interior trends of the moment, there is something special in every house. But in some of them the differential sensation is the essence, especially if that project has come from a privileged mind. The level of Spanish architecture is very high, something that has been confirmed all over the world, and we have great names in the last century who have developed internationally acclaimed works. Many of those designed in our country have also become the subject of study, and we are proud that in The Sibarist catalog there are several examples.  

In the Netflix documentary miniseries ”The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes 2017-2022, the second episode of the first season was dedicated to Casa Levene, the work of Eduardo Arroyo (b. 1964) founder of No.Mad architects, one of the greats of contemporary architecture. On the other hand, in the second season of the series, in the chapter dedicated to Spain, the architect Piers Taylor and the actress Caroline Quentin, a real estate lover, and both directors of the series, chose as one of the three relevant works of our country Hemeroscopium, by Antón García-Abril (b. 1969).

These ‘special houses’ are usually commissions, tailor-made for the client, but as life is in stages, and so are the houses, some of them then come on the market, either for sale or for rent, and there are second buyers who want to get their hands on such a property, aware that they are a unique gem. “In these ten years of The Sibarist participating in festivals and architecture weeks with iconic houses, we have seen how interest has increased exponentially. Before it was much more complicated for the public to understand this type of houses and now there is a greater demand” comments Silvia Hengstenberg, partner of this real estate boutique. 

Precisely The Sibarist specializes in unique properties, a bet that time has proven to be right: “In a market where prices have reached record highs, investing in a unique property, especially one signed by a prestigious architect, is a guarantee of stability and revaluation in the long term. Not only do these homes offer exclusivity, but because they are associated with an iconic design, they maintain or even increase in value over time, regardless of fluctuations in the general market”. Because if there is one thing about the supply of signature homes, it is that it is limited and unique. 

CASA LEVENE – Eduardo Arroyo

able to do it yourself’, more than one would think, but that is what happened in this wonderful property in a forest on Mount Abantos in San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid). Richard Levene, architect and founder of El Croquis, one of the most prestigious international architecture magazines, entrusted the difficult challenge of designing Casa Levene to his colleague Eduardo Arroyo, proof of how much he admired the work of this Bilbao native: “I have always thought that an architect should not design his own house. That’s why I decided to contact one of the best in the world,” Levene said. 

Also recognized for his expertise in urban planning, Arroyo was also a pioneer in sustainability, because in this construction (2002) the first premise was that the house should adapt to the terrain, and not the other way around, so that not a single tree was cut down (only 7, Arroyo explained, “and because they were sick”, from that moment on the project was defined). 

The house is formed from a narrow central core from which three irregular arms extend down the slope: 490 square meters distributed on different floors for each of the resulting arms and designed for the function they serve. The interior is colorful, differentiating the most private area with blue walls and floors, while for the more social areas Arroyo chose orange, following Goethe’s color theories. Much of the furniture in the house was designed for each of its spaces. As in a game of inversions, in the interior the architecture is the least important thing, taking center stage the forest reflected in its large windows.

In this work of art it is currently possible to stay overnight on specific dates, as well as to carry out events or filming. Ask for prices (reference THSTESMAD0002).

BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE – Fernando Higueras y Antonio Miró

In one of the most singular jewels of Madrid’s architecture: the building designed in the 1970s by Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró, two of the most visionary architects of their time. Conceived as an urban refuge, this masterpiece of brutalism breaks with convention by fusing concrete with lush vegetation, generating a unique microclimate in the heart of Madrid.

The recent high-quality renovation of this property respects the original spirit of the building, enhancing its timeless character and elevating the experience of living in a habitable work of art. The private area consists of three bedrooms, the master en suite. A personal sanctuary where light and greenery envelop the space in a serene atmosphere.

The perfect location exists, we have found it. Property for sale with reference THSSESMAD0795 for 1.700.000€.

CASA DE BLAS – Campo Baeza

The lucky client who chooses to buy this house designed by the architect Alberto Campo Baeza (b. 1946) will feel like a pearl hunter, because this property of 300 m² on a plot of 3284 in Sevilla La Nueva (Madrid) is for sale for 850,000 euros. It is one of the most representative works of the work of this National Architecture Prize winner, academic and mythical professor of projects at the ETSAM, as well as other international universities. He himself explains it as follows: “The concrete box rooted in the ground houses a housing program with a clear scheme of service strip at the back and served spaces in front. Inside, square openings frame the landscape, which seems to recede into the distance. The glass box, on the platform, is a viewpoint that can be accessed from the house. Below, the cave as a space for shelter and domestic spaces. Above, the hut, the urn, as a space for contemplation of nature.

The commission for this ‘cave’ came from a professor of Literature (Francisco de Blas) whose wish was a house where his family could listen to music, an intention that Campo Baeza translated with the essential in his eternal endeavor to ‘do more with less’, but not by way of minimalism, but essentialism: proposals rich in spatial content and findings. luminous A hut where to take refuge, inspired by Cernuda’s poem “Donde habite el olvido” that the client gave to the architect from Valladolid the first day he visited him.

CASA GAROZA – Juan Herreros

Another way of understanding the relationship with nature, here as a juxtaposition, as explained by its author, architect Juan Herreros: “The Garoza House is a product of urban culture. It is not conceived as a refuge to escape from the city but as a fragment of the everyday house displaced to the countryside. That is why it does not need to plough it, build a basement, plant a garden, alter nature with decorative species, pervert the composition of the soil and its runoffs. In fact, he barely touches it except for a few metal feet that do not need foundations to rest on the original granite. This conceptual lightness is taken to its ultimate consequences by conceiving this minimal construction as a prototype of an industrialized house”. 

The house was commissioned in 2010 by Rafael Celda, a renowned graphic designer, anticipating something whose debate continues to this day: modular industrialized housing, .which in addition to simplifying and shortening the construction process allows for growth and changes over time All the units were made in the factory, except for the last layer of the facade and the roof, which were placed on site to ensure continuity, overlapping and waterproofing of the joints. 

Just 75 square meters conceived as a large terrace that extends and orients the house towards the landscape, enhancing it through the look, the lightness of the installation and the deliberate industrial appearance of the object that seeks a contrasted rather than mimetic integration. Because the languages are many, as many as are the authors (architects) and their promoters (the clients).

It is possible to stay overnight on specific dates, as well as for events or filming. Ask for prices.

Silvia Hengstenberg explains what makes a second buyer fall in love with one of these properties: “It depends on the buyer. There are those who fall in love with a property at first sight and make quick decisions, especially if they understand that they are in front of a unique opportunity. However, there are also those who search for years until they find the property that really fits their expectations”.

SPECTACULAR XL IN GIRASOL BUILDING – José Antonio Coderch

Spectacular 334m2 apartment renovated with top quality finishes and furnished completely exterior and with terrace in the Salamanca neighborhood, in the heart of the Golden Mile. Magnificent work of interior design in a classic and elegant environment, with avant-garde elements and facilities for the most sophisticated. The jewel we dreamed of.

Modern and high-end finishes and four large bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms make up the rest area.

Impeccably refurbished and furnished, for sale for 5.950.000€ with reference THSSESMAD0797.

CASA HUARTE – Corrales y Molezún

We return to the idea of the refuge house in this 20th century jewel designed in 1967 by architects José Antonio Corrales (1921-2010) and Ramón Vázquez Molezún (1922-1993), founding partners of Corrales y Molezún, one of the most important studios of Spanish post-war architecture, and one of the first to break with the empire of rationalist architecture. The creativity and innovative proposals of this professional couple were truly a landmark, as in this house, marked by the succession of three courtyards: one being the main one, another family courtyard with a swimming pool and a last one that gives access to the bedrooms. A sort of citadel, designed to ensure privacy, a desire of the promoter of this project, Jesus Huarte (owner of the construction company of the same name, an important builder of the time and patron of the arts).

In total, 1,100 square meters built in the exclusive residential area of Puerta de Hierro (Madrid), enormous dimensions with which one could play with today, even considering solutionscoliving , or some cultural proposal.

It is available for sale with reference THSSESMAD265 for 4.500.000 €, as well as for events or filming.

TORRES BLANCAS – Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza

In collective housing is not so common to find an author’s proposal that also represents an architectural landmark, so the White Towers of Madrid, next to Avenida de America, are a rara avis in the panorama of Spanish construction, and more thinking that this is a work of the 60s. It was intended to be a luxury housing development also promoted by Juan Huarte, who wanted to approach the brutalist trend of the hand of one of the best architects of the time, Francisco Javier Saenz de Oiza (1918-2000), who also lived in one of the houses of the building until his death. Its construction brought Oiza’s image to the international scene through its diffusion in the specialized periodicals of the time between 1960 and 1980. It is considered one of the masterpieces of organicism, and draws from both the rationalism of Le Corbusier, with his proposal for gardens in height, and the organicist proposals of Frank Lloyd Wright. 

At the time, two towers were to be promoted, but in the end they remained as one, with different heights juxtaposed like the branches of a gigantic tree, 81 meters high and 23 floors for housing and commercial space on the first floor, with a single swimming pool on the roof. The reinforced concrete structure without pillars is vertically traversed by stairs and elevators like woody vessels of the tree, with curved cantilevered terraces covered with vegetation and wooden lattices that resemble the leaves of the tree. 

The property for sale is wonderfully cared for, with 442 m² in duplex format distributed in 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. But the real highlight of this house, is not counted in numbers, but in sensations, such as that caused by its bright and sinuous interiors, the successful use of color in the red marquetry, stained glass or tiles. A chapter in the history of Madrid’s architecture for sale under reference THSEESMAD0029.

HEMEROSCOPIUM – Antón García-Abril

We finish this tour, as an open-air walk-museum, with another of the Spanish works highlighted in the Netflix documentary, the Hemeroscopium, a word that in Greek means the place where the sun set, and this property plays with the references of the exterior, the light and the horizon. Although in reality it is also a tribute of the architect, Antón García-Abril to his father Antón, musical and film composer (1933-2021) who also lived for many years in this house, built in 2008.

Despite the rotundity of its precast concrete beams and steel structures, the assembly of the structure took only one week. The rest is the result of a meticulous project carried out with large prefabricated parts. The floor plan of the house is inscribed in a square of 22×22 meters but the interior space occupies more than 200 square meters on the two floors and has only three divisions: a living room, kitchen and bedrooms. Each room is designed for natural lighting, open to a courtyard and to the central pool, which is posed as a central element in the design. A second pool is located in the U-beam on the ground level which complies with the Olympic length. On the other hand, the use of glass was thought to avoid visual barriers between interior and exterior. The architect himself said about his house: “It is the closest thing, within contemporary architecture, to North American -Anton says-. It is like the union of Pollock’s drops and Kline’s large strokes”. A good date for these Action Painting weeks in which we will live the ARCO 2025 fair, and a reason to remember that in the building, in addition to living, it is also possible to invest not only as a “brick” but as a piece of art with its own creative value. 

For events or filming.

Unique homes, for special buyers

While the value of these houses, their historical position, is indisputable, it is also true that they require owners with a special sensitivity that allows them to value them “They are usually art collectors, businessmen with a strong interest in design and luxury, or people looking for something more than just a residence: they want an architectural masterpiece. There is also a segment of buyers who see in these properties an asset with potential long-term appreciation , as well as a way of living in a unique space,” say the two real estate partners of The Sibarist. 

Some of them we will not even be able to live them, only enjoy them in events and shootings, so, if our passion is the architecture lived and we have the possibilities, we should not let a house like this escape the few times they go on sale. They are works of collector, “the exclusivity and the unrepeatable character of these homes justify a premium in the price, and, in many cases, its value continues to increase over time due to its uniqueness and recognition of the architect in the international arena”, so we can not only look at projects of established architects, as all of which we have spoken in these five houses, but also in the many others that inhabit the catalog The Sibarist, designed by emerging architects of which already begins to speak, and more to be done. For the buyer, just as it happens when visiting workshops, galleries, dealers, etc., it is an exciting search for the perquisite. It is an exciting search for the good pearl. Something to which, on the other hand, they are more accustomed in other markets. 

“It is true that foreign buyers tend to be more sensitive to the value of signature architecture. In markets such as the U.S., British or French, prestige architecture is considered as relevant an investment as art or fashionhigh-end ,” explains Silvia Hengstenber

But on the other hand, the Spanish buyer “usually has a high knowledge of the sector and looks for properties with a strong component of design and exclusivity” explains Sylvia Girón, the other part of the tandem The Sibarist.