My House: The Live-In Studio of Lanzarote’s Beloved Artist Is Embedded Into Lava Rock
By bringing black rock into his interiors, Ildefenso Aguilar's 1976 residence strays from the whimsical architectural look the Canary Islands are known for.
By bringing black rock into his interiors, Ildefenso Aguilar's 1976 residence strays from the whimsical architectural look the Canary Islands are known for.
Ildefonso Aguilar’s house is decidedly not "traditional" Lanzarote. That is, not one of the blocky, white-washed buildings with a bright green or blue door that the Canary Islands are known for. Aguilar’s home, built in 1976, carries the same reddish hue as the island’s famous Montañas del Fuego. And it is as quirky as the island’s distinctive windmill art.
The home’s rounded edges, cave-like veranda, and sprawling layout give it a modern, organic feel. Aguilar embedded the home within what he calls the island’s "sea of lava," the curve of the patio suggesting a shoreline, with dark waves of lava rock lapping up around the house.
Photo: Yves Drieghe
The mountains and windmill sculptures are both the result of profound forces of nature that shaped Lanzarote, and ultimately, Aguilar’s home: first, the volcanic eruption of 1730 that lasted six years and buried the island in lava and ash, and second, César Manrique, the postmodern artist who created a persona for the island in the ’60s, and then fought to protect it from overdevelopment. Now, three hundred years after the eruption, the island still looks like a scene from The Martian, and 30 years after Manrique’s death, his artistic style and eco-friendly mandates still rule.
Aguilar has been awarded the Gold Medal of the Canary Islands and called Manrique’s "spiritual successor" as he's also an artist-advocate. But in contrast with Manrique’s art, which celebrated bold and colorful elements, artifice alongside nature, Aguilar’s work hums with quiet contemplation, exploring the island’s natural elements with philosophical realism.
"My visual and emotional experiences of the volcanic landscape inspires me every day," says Aguilar. "The continuous look of this landscape has led me to examine and reexamine its beauty and its profound poetics."
Photo: Yves Drieghe
Like his art, Aguilar’s home, dubbed La Ameba, incorporates the island into its design. Its living spaces burrow beneath the volcanic rock, and its external structure elevates the lava onto its surfaces so that rock and house meld into something that is part art, part landscape. While Aguilar’s photographs and music are atmospheric and ruminative, capturing the island’s unspoiled landscape and some of its desolation, the house has a whimsical quality. The asymmetry, the color, the childish shape of the palms and exterior lamps invite play and creativity—the perfect house for an artist.
Aguilar built the home at a time when he was a part of César Manrique’s inner circle, and certain aspects of the residence reflect the giddy exuberance of Manrique’s work.
Photo: Yves Drieghe
See the full story on Dwell.com: My House: The Live-In Studio of Lanzarote’s Beloved Artist Is Embedded Into Lava Rock
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