Ramón Esteve.“The stone was used responsibly, keeping true to the medium, to integrate the house with the surroundings. It was adapted to provide maximum benefit to the project”

How has stone been used in the Paz y Comedias house project?

The stone was used responsibly, keeping true to the medium, to integrate the house with the surroundings. It was adapted to provide maximum benefit to the project from an aesthetic and contextual point of view.

It was used in the walls, which generate the house’s layout, the tiles and bathroom elements, as well as for the interior decoration.

What type of stone was used in the work and why?

We used red Rodeno stone which had been extracted during the site clearance, to merge the home with its surroundings and make use of the surplus resulting from the mountain excavation necessary to build the home.

For the tiles and bathroom basins gray Ulldecona stone was chosen for its appearance, resistance and durability.

What do you think are the best characteristics or qualities of stone as a material to work with?

It’s a material very adaptable to both flooring or for load-bearing walls with cement – which is how we used it – it’s not very difficult to work with it or to adapt its size to the home’s requirements and the use that it’s being put to. It is extremely adaptable to the necessities of the project whether it is cut cleanly into large shapes or even when creating molded shapes to make the basins or the bathtubs.

From the point of view of durability, stone ages very well.

It improves rather than deteriorates with time, unlike many artificial materials.

 The Paz y Comedias house.

How does the stone relate to and harmonize with the rest of the materials that make up the work?

The intense presence of the Rodeno stone is in harmony with the white interior walls and the dark gray horizontal floor-spaces in the home’s interior. On the staircase and the exterior it is combined with tropical wood.

Did any difficulties occur in the use of this material while the project was being carried out?

No, even though we played with large formats for the tiled floors.

From your perspective, what importance or significance does stone have for architecture in general?

Stone is a material that is respectful and sensitive to context, that provides solutions on many different scales, from the architectural scale, as in retaining walls or internal dividers, to a details, as for example with the bathtub or the surfaces into which the sinks are sculpted.

Text: Carmen Méndez

Photography: Mayte Piera