My House: Nadav Kander’s Ibiza Retreat Is Worlds Away From the Island’s Oonzt-Oonzt Nightlife

Nadav Kander can’t stop thinking about work, not even while visiting his family retreat in a mellow corner of Ibiza. And fair enough: the famous photographer’s recent campaigns include a Fear of God and Adidas collaboration, a Peter Gabriel album cover, and promotional assets for The Crown. Projects bounce around in his head no matter where he is, he says. But the island home in Spain at least gives him a break from his start-stop lifestyle near London, allowing him to see ideas more clearly by finding some rhythm in the day to day.

Nadav and his wife have visited Ibiza regularly over the years, but only recently built a home to create a place they could come together with their three kids. The residence has room for the whole family. An interpretation of an Ibicenco—Ibiza’s version of a finca, a Spanish country home with Moorish origins—the property holds a series of five white cube-like volumes with a hallway connecting bedrooms and shared living spaces.

The residence isn’t entirely unlike Nadav’s photography. His work, whether a portrait of King Charles III hanging in London’s National Portrait Gallery, his award-winning landscapes, or transcendent fashion shoots and ad campaigns, has a rawness and creates a dialogue with its subject that only goes deeper the more you look. Similarly, the home, designed by architect Rolf Blakstad, who has an extensive knowledge of the Ibizan architectural tradition, is in conversation with the muted tones of its setting, and captures all the rustic appeal of the island’s building style with its thick, whitewashed walls and soft, organic edges.

"We wanted to take advantage of the site," explains Blakstad, "which is on a beautiful hill overlooking the sea to the east, stone terraces to the south, and to the west, the Morna Valley, which offers sunset views over successions of distant hills." Despite the picturesque sunsets, and perhaps more in keeping with Nadav’s quietly powerful, introspective art, the house is called Can Luna, which means "house of the moon" in Catalan. "On the best nights, we can sit on our patio and watch the moon rise right in front of us," says Nadav.

Blakstad operates from the assumption that, for the most part, what worked in this environment hundreds of years ago still works today. "Traditional builders depended on their own ingenuity to design structures without the help of modern technology and we feel confident in following many of their choices," he says. These largely have to do with keeping the home cool in the mediterranean climate: positioning building modules relative to the patterns of the sun, using extra thick walls and stone and tile floors, creating breeze-catching openings, and planning plenty of well-shaded outdoor spaces. As a result, Can Luna, while not entirely off-grid, is able to run basic household appliances, lighting, and the well-used overhead fans with solar power it generates.

For all its serenity, it’s hard to believe Can Luna is a mere half-hour drive to Ibiza’s infamous nightclubs. But as far as Nadav is concerned, he’s worlds away. "We didn’t come here for that," he laughs. "The northeast is more the hippie side of Ibiza. Not part of ‘the scene.’"

Fresh off a work trip to Paris, Nadav talks with Dwell about the creation of his Ibicenco, how it was partly inspired by Mexican architect Luis Barrigan, and the meditative patterns he and his family fall into while there.