In Sa Caleta, A 335 Square Meter House Built Of Marès Stone, In Need Of Renovation, On

In Sa Caleta, a 335-square-meter house built of marès stone, in need of renovation, on approximately 2,244 square meters of land. Menorca is reflected as much in its stone as in its history. La marès—the soft limestone that has been quarried for centuries in more than 1,500 quarries scattered across the Balearic Islands—has been used here to build both homes and the low walls that crisscross the countryside—not out of habit, but out of necessity, to provide a foothold against the tramontana wind without ever yielding to it.

It is this same ochre-colored, porous stone that can be found in the walls of this house, alongside exposed beams and an old cistern that serves as a reminder of how water, on an island without rivers, has always had to be earned. Nothing here has sought to imitate a style from elsewhere: the house speaks the vernacular language of Menorca, the one that builders have patiently refined amid the wind, the stone, and the Mediterranean light.