On top of the San Blas hill in the beautiful, medieval town of Chinchilla de Montearagón lies Mirador del Llano, a house surrounded by a magnificent castle, walls, convents, and caves. Mirador del Llano was rehabilitated in order to let it breathe, expand, and enjoy the La Mancha plain.
Built in a traditional way, with wooden ceilings and walls of masonry and adobe, the house had been semi-abandoned. Its rooms and elements no longer met the current standards of habitability, requiring an urgent intervention to update it by enhancing its most valuable and singular qualities.
The owners, passionate for this beautiful town and its heritage, wanted the house to become the perfect place to perform their hobbies, enjoying the freedom and space while keeping the essence based on the La Mancha plain views and the respect for the customs and traditions of a town rich in history.
With these premises, the studio Z3 Arquitectura Interior created Mirador del Llano, a project that completely rehabilitated the house while respecting and enhancing the value of its traditional elements.
While respecting the spirit of the house and enhancing the different unique construction elements that appeared during the execution of the work, the intervention aimed to reach the maximum percentage of natural light in all rooms, to provide adequate ventilation for the entire dwelling, and to reduce the high level of existing humidity. Our work was as sensitive as possible with the pieces of special interest and, at the same time, it incorporated modern elements that perfectly suit the traditional ones. “This is a house over two hundred years old, which generated different challenges for us and from which we learned day by day until we obtained what we were looking for, an awe-inspiring result.”
Thus, the house was divided according to heights and color details, generating three clearly differentiated sectors. The first one is dedicated to the daytime and life in common, with energetic, natural green and yellow tones which bring joy and comfort. The second sector is aimed at hosting family and friends, with calmer tones in white and lead blue seeking warmth and relax. The third, multi-purpose sector is dedicated to leisure and art, filled with strength and energy thanks to bright red tones. The latter connects with the views of the outside in white, blue, green, and red again, all mixed with the La Mancha plain and its unique sunsets.
The rooms that fill the house with life are located on the ground floor. A studio connected to the patio leads to the interior of the house, which boasts one of its most spectacular corners, namely, the double-height cave with remains of ancient vessels and wine bottles. It was finished with masonry of stone out of the rock excavated from the very hill, which once again gains special relevance and beauty after our intervention and allows for a new space to meet and taste wines. The rehabilitation permits a continued use of the house throughout the year. In addition, one may find a practical living room connected to the dining room and kitchen, a guest bathroom, and a suite-style bedroom, turning this floor into an actual house for two people, fully equipped and independent from the rest of the building.
The second floor is aimed at providing the best service to guests, with two large and beautiful areas separated from each other by a shared bathroom and the staircase leading to the last floor. The two rooms have built-in wardrobes with wicker curtains which serve as doors and provide a remarkable organic input. During the works on this floor, we decided to bring out the wooden joists of the upper ceiling, restoring and painting them in a white tone to obtain even more luminosity. These pieces acquire fundamental relevance on this floor and make all users feel warm and at home.
Finally, a two-flight staircase covered with handmade pieces leads to the top floor. Those pieces, made in two geometric tones and white and red colors, match the flooring of the top floor, which is finished with traditional Catalan ceramics. This creates a new space, dedicated to leisure and exhibition of works of art, where you may expand your mind and enjoy peace and quiet, sheltered by a discreet and functional fireplace.
The house is equipped with state-of-the-art systems for air renewal, a carefully-studied lighting studied in detail to create different settings, and aerothermal radiators which, together with the large, perfectly insulated walls and ceilings, reduce impact on the environment. As for the furniture, we chose pieces with tradition and character, classic and timeless elements that are part of the traditional imagination and which are combined with elegant, plain works of modern designers.
Mirador del Llano allows enjoying space and fresh air, quietness, the calmness and closeness of the neighborhood, as well as the hustle and bustle of friends and family throughout the year. For the Z3 Arquitectura Interior team, this is a closely felt project, carried out with lots of love, enthusiasm, and the same energy that can be seen in each spark of color that appears here and there throughout the entire route of the house. It has also given us the opportunity to work with construction systems that are the essence of ourselves, to meet a very special family full of joy and sympathy, and a beautiful town rich in history and suitable for all audiences.
