Mas Cadalt House by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos: A Contemporary Revival of a Girona Farmhouse

Mas Cadalt House, designed by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos, stands in the heart of Serrat de la Cadalt in Canet d’Adri, Girona, where a once-abandoned farmhouse has been meticulously reimagined for modern living. Completed in 2025, the 385 m² residence demonstrates how heritage architecture can evolve with precision, restraint, and environmental consciousness.

Restoring a Way of Life: Concept + Approach

At the core of the project lies a simple question: Can a traditional lifestyle be recovered with the same delicacy used to restore an ancient artifact?The intervention is guided by understanding the essence of the original farmhouse and modifying only where absolutely necessary.

The architects preserve the existing volume, typology, and spatial logic, translating them into a contemporary program that respects the farmhouse’s rural identity. The new inhabitants—a couple relocating from London—continue their professional lives remotely, embracing a lifestyle shaped by nature, silence, and Mediterranean light. The home thus becomes a case study in the growing global phenomenon: the possibility of working from anywhere.

Programmatic Reorganization

The project respects the dimensions of the original rooms, subtly aligning them with a new, thoughtfully restructured program:

• Access Level:A luminous kitchen occupies the base of the restored tower, taking advantage of its remarkable triple-height space. Nearby, the living room opens toward sweeping views of the Sierra de la Cadalt, grounding daily life in the surrounding landscape.
• Upper Floor:Two serene bedrooms are arranged with spatial clarity and minimal intervention.
• Lower Floor:The former animal enclosure has been transformed into a multipurpose room, maintaining the tactile sense of its rustic past.
• Adjacent Volume:Once used for farming tools, this structure now serves as a garage, topped with a studio where furniture designer Terence Woodgate leads his design practice.

Material Heritage + Construction Logic

Girona’s traditional farmhouses often relied on load-bearing limestone masonry, bound with air-lime mortar. Carefully dressed stones defined corners, lintels, and openings, creating structural clarity.Inside, walls were historically finished with lime and sand plaster, topped with a slaked-lime wash to brighten interior spaces.

In Mas Cadalt House, this construction logic is not only preserved but enhanced. The original limestone walls were repaired and consolidated, then insulated with natural cork, significantly improving thermal performance. A new internal skin conceals contemporary systems, increases luminosity, and ensures long-term durability, while remaining visually discreet.The flooring—crafted from limestone—maintains material coherence across old and new elements.

A Dialogue Between Architecture and Product Design

The interiors embody a fusion of architecture and industrial design.Every decision is precise:

• Electrical outlets sit flush with walls.
• Construction elements meet at single, intentional points.
• Contemporary insertions remain honest to their time.

This approach creates an atmosphere where the restored and the modern coexist seamlessly, neither overpowering the other.

Energy Independence + Self-Sufficiency

One of the home’s most remarkable achievements is its complete autonomy regarding energy and water.Key sustainable features include:

• Photovoltaic panels with battery storage, enabling off-grid living.
• A custom-engineered cistern system for capturing and filtering water.
• One cistern conceived as a natural pool, offering a cooling retreat.
• Several hectares of surrounding land—some cultivated—produce sufficient food for the residents.

This synergy between architecture, technology, and landscape supports a lifestyle that is both contemporary and deeply rooted in place.

A Quiet, Careful Reconstruction

The architects describe the creative process as one of slowly letting go—of habits, expectations, and external influences—until only the project’s essential truth remains. Mas Cadalt House is shaped by this attitude: the patient reconstruction of deteriorated elements and the addition of only what was genuinely missing.

In doing so, the project becomes not just a restored building, but a renewed way of life—where tradition, landscape, and contemporary design merge into a quiet, enduring harmony.

All the Photographs are works of Fernando Guerra