Casa CLO by Alventosa Morell Arquitectes is conceived as a lightweight timber house that threads domestic life into a pine forest on the coast of Tarragona, Spain, stepping down a steep, rocky plot with access from the lowest point.
Wood is central not just as a finish, but as the project’s structural strategy. The architects use a timber system that transfers the building’s loads to ten vertical columns, which allows the house to touch the ground at only ten point foundations—a decisive advantage on difficult terrain where heavy earthworks would be costly. In other words, wood enables “lightness”: it supports an elevated approach that minimizes excavation and reduces disruption to the rocky site.
That same timber logic shapes the plan. The program is split into three raised volumes set at different levels to follow the slope and capture distant sea views, while their placement responds to existing trees to avoid felling, producing a slight rotation and a more organic fit among trunks and canopy. The article explicitly links the timber structure’s verticality to the forest’s rhythm—columns and wood members echo the surrounding pines and extend that feeling into the interior.
Inside, wood continues to matter as atmosphere and continuity: a double-height kitchen/dining space visually connects the three volumes, while the interiors are described as defined by a timber material palette, with wooden surfaces carrying through even to minimal upper-level bathroom areas. A metal stair and skylit study are inserted within this warm wooden framework, making timber both the house’s primary structure and the sensory medium that ties the family’s second home to its forest setting.
project info:
name: Casa CLO
architect: Alventosa Morell Arquitectes | @alventosamorell
location: Tarragona, Spain
area: 140 sqm
photographer: José Hevia
lightweight timber house in spain interlaces three raised volumes within tree canopy
