Living in an old cistern

This cistern has a lot of history. And we're not referring so much to the time that has passed since it was built, in the early 1940s, to collect and store the water that came down from the streets of the village of Campanet and supply the lands of the Son Gener estate, which would later be divided into plots and sold. We're talking above all about a family story: that of the architect Maria Gelabert Paris, whose father, a farmworker, bought a plot of land on the estate where he had lived as a child because his parents owned it—owners, in Mallorca, are the peasants who manage the estate for the lords who are its owners. Yes, the architect's father bought that plot of land where there was a terrace that protruded a meter and a half from the ground level. He knew, or had heard all his life, that the estate's cistern was there, but it had no entrance; all that was visible was a small manhole. They opened it, went inside, and discovered that cistern, a semi-basement, measuring about 90 square meters and with a rather impressive barrel vault. And they began to dream.

First, Dad thought about reclaiming the cistern to store things from the countryside. Then, he thought about using it for picnics with his friends... Meanwhile, Maria Gelabert, who works in Palma and lived in a rental, wanted to return to the village. But in Campanet, as with almost everything, housing is expensive: "Young people who have a house do so because their godparents or parents had one. That's not my case." According to the young architect, she couldn't afford to build a house on that lot either. Renovating and then inhabiting that old cistern was the solution to the current housing difficulties. "And so began a scalpel-like intervention to adapt the space to its new use, ensuring all its habitable conditions, but without denying the essence of the cistern that once was," says the architect.

Opening a portal and a window; emptying more than half a meter of mud and sediment accumulated over decades; leveling the original slope of the ground; sealing the water inlets that still filled the space after heavy rains; waterproofing the interior of those walls, which were extremely thick but had cracks through which water seeped from the ground they contained: these are just some of the essential tasks that had to be carried out to prepare the space and make it habitable. The new life of this old cistern was achieved with a limited budget that did not exceed, the architect confesses, 60,000 euros.

Maria Gelabert Paris, who has lived here for two years, assures that "the thickness of the walls and their contact with the ground provide a great deal of thermal inertia in the space, which enjoys the climatic conditions typical of the interior of a cave." In fact, the cozy spirit of this home also resembles a cave. It's conceived as a loft, a single space three-quarters covered by the original barrel vault, while the other quarter originally featured and retains a floor of concrete beams and sandstone vaults. All at a height of approximately 4 meters.

A unique space

And this unitary space, which unites the kitchen, dining room, living area, and bedroom from end to end, is only interposed between these two areas by a box that houses a small bathroom with a shower and forced air extraction. This cube, plastered like the double wall on the sides of the old water tank so that its whiteness radiates as much light as possible, also doesn't touch the vault. Thus, the space isn't closed off at any point; its continuity is enhanced, but at the same time, this bathroom acts as a separator from the most intimate part, reserved for the bed, without depriving it of ventilation.

Today, more than just the essence of the cistern remains. It had long since lost its function. But now, in the space created by architect Maria Gelabert Paris, many other traces of its afterlife can still be seen, in addition to the barrel vault. The intention was to preserve the small chest through which they first entered, preserving the stains, the adherent limescale, and many of the holes and wounds from that history. Thus, with indirect lighting that further enhances the large vault, the new space offers an even greater sense of being a cave. However, it also has a personal and family history.