BOOK
Author: Stefano Cortellaro
Publisher: COAIB, Palma de Mallorca, 2007
Awards: Finalist at Critic and Research category FAD Awards 2008
In the case of Ibiza, the concepts of local house architecture and landscape architecture can be unified. Ibizan rural architecture is, thus, the construction of the island territory, a body formed by walls, land terraces, paths, etc., covering the entire island, with the rural homestead as its cell. This is the minimum territorial and social unit, formed by agricultural spaces, among which the dwelling’s volumes are prominent. Following the first chapter of general analysis, the study focuses on an area in the north of the island, Atzaró, Balafi and Morna Valley, characterised by the fact that it features rural settlements of enormous architectural value.
The work is based on an analysis of the rural space by landscape layers or elements, and by progressive zooms (from a global reading of the island on a scale of 1:175.000 to the drawings on a scale of 1:500 of the most significant dwellings developed around the springs of Morna and Atzaró). It studies the relations that the territory’s construction elements (terrace walls, valley enclosures, water courses, road network, etc.) create with the topography.