Architecture and interior design: Néstor Pérez Batista
If when you enter Casa Montelongo on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, you have the feeling of being in a “non-place,” its designer, Néstor Pérez Batista has achieved his intention. Perceiving a state of suspension guided him in creating spacious rooms, flooded with natural light. The boundaries blur between outside and inside and the architecture puts itself in the service of slowed-down times.
A 19th-century house, which was once a family home, has been completely renovated to include only two accommodation units, conceived by Pérez Batista, following a diversified spatial geometry emphasizing openness and transparency. Even though each space is individually designed, it is strategically connected to the patio through openings in the interior facades.
Establishing a close relationship between the rooms of the house and the patio was essential. Both privacy and comfortable temperatures are ensured with a strategy of volume layouts that creates continuity. The kitchenette corner was “carved out” from the base structure of a former theater and the original home. The outside area was gently reworked to create another extra room in both residential units.
It creates a private, inviting atmosphere in which a shared long rectangular swimming pool separates the two houses, which can be rented together or separately. Minimalism prevails in the interiors, with particular focus on clean lines and simple style, which also infuses the peaceful calm that a revitalizing stay invites you to experience. Tradition, modernity, and design merge in a tribute to the island’s heritage and involve the use of local materials such as stone, wood, clay, lime, and glass.
An artwork by Óscar Latuag, an artist from Tenerife, stands out on the wall overlooking the pool, a tribute to Fuerteventura’s rich natural heritage. The work’s abstract forms suggest lichens, prickly pears, and penca leaves, which interact with sunlight dynamics and cast on the immaculate white wall an interplay of ever-shifting shadows.
