Lleó 57 – Irre­gular lines, clearly defined edges and the scent of Majorcan orange trees

This was the ori­ginal plan of Detlef and Ulrike Rahe, both of them desi­gners and Pro­fessors of Design in Bremen (he) and Goteborg (she). When invited on a walking holiday in Majorca they were at first reluctant… but then they were plea­santly sur­prised – by the authen­ticity and uni­queness of the Tra­m­untana moun­tains and the distinctive coastal for­ma­tions of the For­mentor pen­insula with its won­derful play of light and colour. So the French savoir vivre was exch­anged for the Majorcan arte de vivir in the narrow, winding streets of the old town of Pol­lença – more pre­cisely, in the house at 57, Carrer del Lleó, or Lion Street, in this lively town in the north of Majorca that still retains a really Spanish atmo­sphere.

The pro­tected his­to­rical mansion rises proudly above the jumbled façades of the neigh­bouring two-storey houses, doing full justice to the name of the street. The Caller de Lleó, once an important main road into the town centre, leads directly to the old town of Pol­lença, which nestles gently into the slopes of the Calvary hillside. Today the Caller is almost com­pletely free of traffic; only hikers and pil­grims pass this way. The hill is climbed by 365 steps leading ulti­m­ately to a small Baroque pil­grimage chapel, where the view is spec­ta­cular and there is no need to be a pilgrim to feel a state of divine rapture. The two desi­gners bought the fairly run-down yet imposing building, with its inner cour­tyard, in 2012. Since its con­s­truction over 150 years ago, it had always been in the hands of the same family, and had been altered many times over the years.

At the time of the purchase, the building’s ori­ginal layout was com­pletely hidden by later deve­lo­p­ments and scarcely detec­table. The first stage was the­r­efore to survey it tho­roughly and examine the struc­tural inte­grity. The absolute priority was to have as much regard as pos­sible for the his­to­rical layout and structure, while com­bining this with new reno­va­tions and modern interior design. It was to be authentic down to the tiniest details: all that was new was to be visibly so, as was the old. Layers were carefully peeled back to reveal the old structure, bringing to light rough-hewn Majorcan sand­stone, fine glazed tiles and exposed beams. The outer walls, all load­bearing par­ti­tions and the ori­ginal roof beams were in rela­tively good con­dition and could be left in place.

The derelict top floor was com­pletely removed, and the ori­ginal roof tiles reused when it was rebuilt. All the interior par­tition walls that were not ori­ginal were removed. The ori­ginal layout had three adjacent rooms over­looking the street and three at the back looking out onto the cour­tyard – 6 rooms per storey – totalling 18 almost rec­tan­gular rooms, with the foot­print of the house forming a slight par­al­le­logram. The 18 rooms were com­bined by opening up one or more walls, thus doubling or tri­pling them in area. The result was a spa­cious holiday house with 4 bed­rooms, 5 bath­rooms, 2 fully equipped kit­chens, 2 dining rooms, 2 living rooms, a library/study, a music room with a finely-tuned piano and 3 ter­races on three dif­ferent levels.

Ground level // first floor // second floor

The inner cour­tyard is com­pa­ra­tively large, since the neigh­bouring street, whose location has always deter­mined the size of the houses and cour­tyards behind them, had a slight bend in the vicinity of no. 57. And this is the hidden heart of Lleó 57: the patio with its sun terrace, salt water pool and long table is both a place for con­ver­sation and a secluded oasis offering total privacy. Breakfast is accom­panied by the lively twit­tering of the birds that nest in the walls of the house, the warmth of the day gra­dually increases and orange blossom fills the air with its distinctive scent. The atmo­sphere of the house con­stantly changes with the weather, the position of the sun and the time of day, making it a special backdrop for the acti­vities of those inside.

Lleó 57 is governed by strict building con­trols covering the whole of the façade, the enc­losed volume and indi­vidual rear-facing com­ponents, and all the slightly irre­gular lines of the walls – as it is not the ori­ginal idea, but the actual exe­cution of the intended layout that is pro­tected. This gives the holiday home a very special cha­racter, pro­moting a dia­logue between irre­gular lines and clearly defined edges – a dia­logue about past and present, craft­smanship and Majorcan pride, warm sand­stone and smooth tiles, about neigh­bours that became good friends and about the con­stant factor that has inspired the mansion at Caller de Lleó and its inha­bi­tants for 150 years: the Majorcan way of life, el arte de vivir. And if someone sits at the piano, sending its notes out into every corner of the house, Lleó finds its soul and the master of the house listens raptly: “There is hardly any­thing more beau­tiful that life has to offer”.

Text: Britta Krämer, January 2017

Pic­tures: Detlef Rahe and Ulrike Rahe, Mau­ricio Fuertes

The house

Holiday home LLEÓ57

Holiday home LLEÓ57

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LLEÓ57 is a listed former mansion two minutes from the mar­ket­place of the small town of Pol­lenca in the north of Mal­lorca which, with 390 sqm, offers plenty of space for its guests.

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