JEC House / Aixopluc

A 1000 m2 plot at a five-minute walk from the center of Reus. In the middle of the site, a self-built country house. A hidden misfit gem. The late grandfather bought this mas many years ago. He spent the second part of his life taking care of it. Using his skills as a watchmaker, he patiently assembled additions, welding, screwing, and growing all kinds of rooms, huts, shacks, porches, fig trees, palm trees, plants, and shades: An outdoors abode, a second house around the former one-floor self-built construction. The house was in a perpetual state of construction, a never-ending laborious enjoyment for its dwellers. And then in 2016 the father died, and the place was empty. A year after the father’s passing, the son, his wife, and daughter -the JECs- decided to move back in. Their only initial demand was that they wanted to live on the ground floor. The JECs first question was whether it was better to keep the existing mas, or to demolish it and build a new structure instead?