A house can be a true work of art. Since the earliest days of modern architecture, there have been rare and valued examples of architects creating domestic spaces that represent a complete synthesis of every aspect of their art and approach. The German term for this all-encompassing approach is gesamtkunstwerk –‘ total work of art’ – and it resulted in some of the grandest and most accomplished pieces of residential architecture ever made. The opportunity to live well while also enhancing global architecture culture on a grand scale is rare. Finding a site, commissioning an architect, and creating a house that embodies a sense of place as well as world-leading innovation is rarer still. To find seven such houses in one location is therefore truly unique.
La Reserva is such an opportunity. Perched high in the foothills of the Sierra Almenara, overlooking the sparkling seas of the Costa del Sol and the horizon revealing the distant forms of Gibraltar and Africa, La Reserva( 1,154 acres / 467 hectares) is the next chapter in the illustrious history of the 5,000-acre privately owned real estate and leisure destination; a slice of beautiful Andalusian countryside, the most beautiful and secluded hideaway on the coast.
La Reserva will be set within a landscape developed by Jean Mus, the highly decorated French master of Provençal and Mediterranean landscape design. Renowned for his work at Ritz Paris, Palais de Monaco and numerous private residences along the Mediterranean, Mus’ masterplan unites the relationship between nature and architecture, with strictly indigenous planting allowing the terraces and gardens to blend with the surrounding hills.
Here, scattered within private and secure communities will be a limited number of ultra-contemporary residences, from € 2m, of exceptional contemporary architecture and allied in their orientation to nature’ s rhythms, the landscape and the passage of the sun and changing seasons.
At La Reserva’ s apex, high in the hills, within its own private and gated community, will be seven world-exemplary residences( from € 13m), taking Sotogrande’ s sense of exclusivity and seclusion to another level.
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