September 15, 2023 | Updated: September 18, 2023

Santa Ursula, a play of shapes on the cliffs

The integration of the project in a unique environment in Tenerife makes this villa an exceptional viewpoint overlooking the sea.

An imposing villa located in the north of the Spanish island on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. This is how we can describe Santa Ursula, the building designed by architect José Lucas Delgado Gorrín, of the Tenerife studio Ideass, which uses Porcelanosa Group materials for its interior and exterior cladding.

Developed in different layers, the house has green roofs, wooden decks and floating stones that constitute the fifth facade of this diaphanous and luminous space of minimalist aesthetics.

The interior of Santa Ursula is structured on three levels that are articulated through a central atrium, where the true protagonists of the space converge: three sculptural staircases that distribute distribution from more social to more intimate spaces.

The new housing is defined by a more public first level, at the top of the cliff, which serves as access from the street. It is succeeded by an intermediate level of living rooms, day rooms, guest bedrooms around the terraces, and the main pool, offering the best views and south orientation.

On the lower level there is a more private area with family bedrooms, a library, a study room and a living room. All this is accompanied by the constant presence of the ocean and the Teide, both essential protagonists of Santa Ursula brought in through wide interior openings that follow one after the other along the different open levels with hardly any enclosures.

A lift connects all levels: from the upper platform to a cave that leads to an outdoor pool suspended on the cliff. The house also has a second outdoor pool that, in an attempt to dilute the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, is projected on an intermediate level and is incorporated into the house to create open spaces.

The Santa Ursula façade envelope is made entirely of Krion® K-Life 1100 solid surface, using Butech’s K-FIX ventilated façade system. Next to it, large glass enclosures emphasize the penetrating blue of the sky and the sea. Part of the enclosure of the house is made up of panels clad with XLIGHT, Porcelanosa Group’s large-format porcelain tile.