4 minute read
CHANCE ENCOUNTER
CHANCE ENCOUNTER
Sitting as a place of calm composure under the blaze of the Mallorcan sun, Son Serra offers a quiet reprieve from the elements, where contemporary refinement meets rural imperfectability.
DESIGN | BonVivant Concept ARCHITECTURE | Bernardo Oliver and Javier Marquez BUILD | Consfutur LANDSCAPE DESIGN | Jardineria Bisanyes LOCATION | Mallorca, Spain PHOTOGRAPHER | Salva Lopez WORDS | Bronwyn Marshall
A home that fuses the old and the new together with people and place, is a reflection of both its surroundings in an idyllic and removed destination in the Balearic Islands, and its Belgium-based owners. Devised by multi-disciplinary design studio BonVivant Concept, co-founding director Victoria Vidal explains the main responsibility in their approach to the project was to respect the traditional architecture of the area and the home’s original features. “We wanted to reflect tradition from a contemporary approach –mixing the rustic with Art Nouveau touches from a minimalist vision,” she says.
Playful furniture contrasts the rustic living space, including the Camaleonda sofas by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia and an Arco armchair by Dusty Deco. Painting by Jaume Roig.
The seeds of what would become Son Serra were planted through fate, through a chance initial meeting. “Visiting our concept store one day, our client became immersed within a design language that spoke to them,” BonVivant Concept co-founding director Feliu Rullán describes, “from the initial outset, we wanted to create a spacious and bright home where our client could enjoy holidays with family and friends.” Drawing from the surrounding natural and earthy tones of the landscape, the approach sees a weightedness combined with the suppleness of the home’s masonry elements, to wrap and cocoon its occupants in a meditative way.
Earthy and desaturated colours were selected to evoke Son Serra’s location, the Sierra de Tramuntana while creating a sense of warmth in each space.
Dating back to 1773, the original Son Serra country estate stands as a testament to its history, with remnant details steadfastly in place, while being reinterpreted through the new reshaping of the home. In tying in the old and new, Feliu adds, “we opted for natural materials that are characteristic of typical Mallorcan constructions, such as solid wood and stone from the nearby town of Binissalem. We wanted to utilise a typical technique called ‘trispols’, where continuous flooring runs throughout the property.” Although the ease of flow between inside and out originally allowed animals and stock to traverse the property between feeding zones, its modern interpretation allows an outdoor lived life to be a key part of the experience of the home and absorption within Spanish culture.
The estate is broken up into multiple buildings. The more recent addition circa early 1900s sits less open, yet remains connected through a shared warmth. As a continuation of that binding of elements across the site, “The colours chosen for this project are as natural as possible,” Victoria says, “We have used sand and earth colours throughout that have been desaturated together with other deliberately sober tones to give the design a sense of temporality.”
Light dances across the new sculptural staircase. BonVivant Concept set out to create spacious and bright interiors, where the exterior and interior are in constant dialogue.
As an outward and expressed love of Mallorca, Son Serra beautifully captures a spirit of openness, while being steeped in a Belgian simplicity. Completed at a steadied pace, over two years, BonVivant Concept transform this nod to history into a refined new residence, while carefully retaining a rustic nostalgia.
Within the main building, there are three bedrooms on the first floor, including the primary bedroom, with a private bathroom. Four bedrooms connected by a large living room are located on the second floor.
BonVivant Concept opted for natural materials characteristic of Mallorcan constructions such as wood, stone sourced from a nearby town Binissalem, natural brass and lime paint.
BonVivant Concept designed the custom bathtub in the primary suite. “The execution was far from simple,” Feliu Rullán says. “We were very nervous, but we are delighted with the result.”
The dining space showcases a dining table designed by BonVivant Concept, together with a sculptural ten-light Nuvol chandelier by Mallorcan lighting and design studio CONTAIN and mid-century modern Mackintosh Ashwood chairs.
Son Serra is a former country estate featuring two buildings BonVivant Concept were engaged to revive.
