Casa JMA Marbella by Febrero Studio.

Who hasn’t dreamt of having a holiday home right on the coast, close to the vibrant energy of a charming city while also maintaining privacy and peace? Casa JMA offers all of that. Located in Marbella in the Andalusia region on Spain’s Costa del Sol, the 300-square-metre house was designed by Madrid-based architecture and interior design practice Febrero Studio. Since their debut as a duo in 2016, cofounders Mercedes Gonzalez Ballesteros and Jesús Diaz Osuna — who have offices in Marbella and Seville — design with the objective of creating “warm, personal and functional spaces to help people reinvent themselves through architecture and design”.

This particular project consisted of the complete refurbishment of an old villa and the addition of a new extension. “The client wanted a summer house, which would be very open to the garden and ready to welcome friends and family”, remember the founders of Febrero Studio. “There was an existing house and we decided to maintain part of its structure as it was in very good shape.”

Related: VH Apartment Madrid by Febrero Studio.

The brickwork structure was the starting point for this home, which is articulated around a semi-public entrance corridor dividing the public spaces, situated on the lower level (opening to the pool), from the private areas with all the bedrooms and bathrooms overlooking the garden.

“The biggest challenge was to reuse and modify the structure of the pre-existing house for our new layout”, the duo says. “We did not want to demolish a structure in good condition, so we readapted most of it and extended it.”

Throughout the project, Gonzalez Ballesteros and Diaz Osuna had a lot of freedom, which enabled them to really reflect their creative vision based on the purity of materials and the desire to design spaces to foster slow life and relaxation. Soft and restrained, the colour and materials palette accentuates the feeling of serenity that pervades the spaces.

Just a few pieces of furniture and accessories were placed in the house, inviting visitors and dwellers to focus on the bare essentials while enjoying both the comfort and simple refinement of the architecture and interior design.

Instead of a poolhouse, which was originally planned, the architects shaped a guest room with its own bathroom that provides beautiful views of the mountains.

“We like the way the materials play together to create a very calm and peaceful atmosphere,” Gonzalez Ballesteros and Diaz Osuna confess. “The fact that we achieved the expected result, without making compromises, is what we are most proud of.”

Related: Lover’s House in Mallorca by ISLA Architects.

[Images courtesy of Febrero Studio. Photography by Germán Saiz.]