The life cycle of an iconic house is complex. New owners can upset its balance, but it also must be capable of evolving with time. After all, a home is a space built to be lived in. Ezequiel Pini, an Argentinian-born digital artist and designer who is the creative force behind the studio Six N. Five, has found a house that suits him in Casa Riera, more commonly known by its nickname Casa Semienterrada (Half-Buried House), a place whose pioneering spirit connects with his own.
Designed by Barcelona architect Javier Barba in 1986 and located in the Maresme region, to the north of the city, this house was Barba’s first bioclimatic residence. The building, which disappears into the landscape of a mountainous coastal area, was revolutionary for its time—and remains an inspiration for other architects to this day. So much so that we covered it in print in 1987. Barba would achieve that recognition a dozen more times, and one of his properties in Menorca was on the cover in 1992. He was also named to the AD100 list in 2002, 2004, and 2010.
The house is located on a sloping site, with a road along its higher end and views of a pine forest and the Mediterranean. The architect explored the location for days, “morning, noon, and night, to understand the geography and the existing vegetation,” he recalls, until he came to the conclusion that a semi-buried house, with a green roof, would be the best way to integrate the construction into the environment. His goal was always to “create a dramatic and exciting façade that wouldn’t interfere with the landscape, that would fuse its materiality with the granite rocks of the area,” he explains. Walls of concrete mixed with quartz, feldspar, and mica create a unique stony effect, accompanied by various plants native to the region.
