We visit the Blakstad Studio, which maintains a fluid, essential dialogue with traditional Mediterranean architecture on the island of Ibiza. Architecture that blends the different cultures that, for thousands of years, have influenced the way people think, build and live on these wonderful islands.

We talk to Rolf Blakstad, who, at the head of the Studio that his father founded in 1967, maintains the family legacy with great vitality, while prudently evolving towards the needs and tastes of the twenty-first century.

Q: What makes the Blakstad Studio’s architecture unique and why is it so well known?

A: The traditional architecture of Ibiza has had its identity, its way of being, since 600 BC. The Phoenicians and Carthaginians established the pattern for construction in Ibiza, based on cubes with mud walls. In other areas, Greek and subsequently Roman techniques defined the style of construction.

When my parents arrived in Ibiza in 1956, from the boat they saw a landscape that my father described as “a white city in the form of a pyramid, a terraced hill rising from the sea with row after row of crystalline cubic houses”.

They decided to stay and my father, a Canadian architect and the son of an architect himself, made a very serious in-depth study of what traditional Ibizan architecture was and meant. In fact, he produced a beautiful book called Estudio de la Casa Ibicenca, which has just been reissued in a luxury edition. It deals not only with buildings but also the landscape of fields, farmland and the ancient atmosphere of the island. He founded the studio in 1967, and today it still takes traditional architecture as a point of reference.

Q: We are in the twenty-first century and also at a very critical time due to Covid-19. How has all this affected the way in which we build or refurbish?

A: Despite the minor disruption caused by Covid-19, we are moving towards sustainable construction, especially in demand by younger people. Ecological and green are very clear keywords. Everyone expects governments to show the way, but I think the change must come from below. From the younger generations, who will insist that what they buy should follow sustainable principles. 

And this makes us look back to the architecture developed over more than 12,000 years. Currently we have to rely on energy generation to create homes, when we could really create good habitable spaces through design.

“We could create good habitable spaces through design”

Q: Can luxury and sustainability go hand in hand in architecture?

A: The Romans lived in great luxury. They had running water, drains, underfloor heating… What makes the difference for us today about how to develop a home is glass. The old Ibizan houses, for example, had interior porches and very small windows. Rooms can now be glazed and houses are open to the exterior. It’s a transition from the traditional Ibizan home to today’s needs and preferences.

Q: Tell us about architecture in times of crisis.

A: It’s a matter of cycles. People are currently looking for maximum comfort, the best materials, but avoid excessive ostentation. People like the idea of life in the open air and elements such as gardens and orchards reflect this change of thinking. Blakstad builds, refurbishes and designs interiors, but we do not decorate homes. We consider that the homes are not ours, they belong to the people that occupy them and fortunately our customers are usually very much involved in the project.

“Homes belong to the people who occupy them”

Q: Are there any similarities between Blakstad’s projects and those of other leading architects who lived and worked in Ibiza, such as Erwin Broner and Josep Lluís Sert? To give just two examples.

A: They were from the Bauhaus school and our work is based on traditional Mediterranean architecture. They adapt Bauhaus architecture to Ibizan architecture, while we take traditional architecture with its Phoenician and Carthaginian roots as an absolute foundation and adapt it to modern life. There is a Belgian architect, from my father’s generation, Phillippe Rodier, founder of the TEP, whose ideas are in line with our understanding of architecture.

Galería de fotos

Q: So what are the keys to your way of undertaking projects?

A: We interpret. My father and I were very faithful to the original layout of the houses for many years, but recently we have adapted. I have had to do this by creating contemporary designs that respect those roots. We currently apply the rule of adapting the house to people’s way of life and not their way of life to the house.

Q: Tell us about ongoing projects.

A: We are working on some very interesting projects in Sicily, also in Arizona and California and, of course, in Ibiza. In all these places the climate has many features in common. In Ibiza we have numerous projects, some of which we cannot disclose at the moment for reasons of confidentiality. 

One very exciting project we are working on is a complex of nine homes with a magnificent ecological estate and a rural hotel. Everything will be built with sustainability in mind. For the nine-house complex we have fully respected traditional architecture. I think it will become an iconic project for the island. We are also working on new modern housing, using glass and cutting-edge materials.

“We apply the rule of adapting the house to people’s way of life and not their way of life to the house”

Q: What are the Blakstad Studio’s customers like?

A: We have many foreign customers and an increasing number from Ibiza itself. Every day I see more houses that resemble ours, and it doesn’t normally bother me, because it confirms that the houses we build are right for the place where they are going to be lived in.

Q: Let’s go back to materials, because for the Porcelanosa Group they are a priority. Krion, Noken, Porcelanosa, Butech and L’Antic Colonial, for example, are important brands. How do you see the development of new materials in building?

A: Materials play a major role in our projects. And I think that we must be pragmatic regarding their use. Our greatest challenge is to use materials to adapt new building or refurbishments to current needs, where sustainability is particularly important.

The search for materials and experimentation with them are absolutely necessary. My father was a very pragmatic architect and so am I. I don’t think that the past is always better, but materials must be used for people’s benefit. In materials, practical considerations must prevail over aesthetic preferences, although we always seek to ensure that both concepts coincide.