Living the high life

It’s the kind of high-end project that any lighting designer would kill for – a big-budget cliff-top villa in Mallorca with early access to the architect – and Max von Barnholt got to do it

Half hidden high in a cliff overlooking the Bay of Formentor on the northern tip of the Spanish island of Mallorca is C’an de Rosen – a minimalist 750-square-metre villa. It has six bedrooms, a gym, reception rooms, a 3,000-bottle bodega, and even its own cinema and smoking room.

Max von Barnholt, lead designer at VBK Lighting Consultants, has been involved in the project for three years, travelling to the site every month. Lighting caught up with him after his most recent trip as the villa neared completion.

From the outset, von Barnholt's intention was to design lighting systems that were all but invisible, and sympathetic to the minimalist design of the architecture.

For example, downlights - that often reviled light source, which von Barnholt also "detests" - are used only in the showers.

Almost all the remaining fittings are bespoke and, with the co-operation of the architect, have been designed into the fabric of the building. "The idea is that you want a bit of show on the walls and the ceilings, but to keep it to a minimum," says Barnholt. "For the most part it's all integral to the fabric of the build."

The early bird
This approach was only possible because VBK was involved in the project at such an early stage. Von Barnholt says: "We did a job for this client [de Rosen Design & Build] back in 2003 and we were brought in relatively early, but not early enough to influence as much as we would have liked. That was a bit of an eye-opener for him, so he got us in on this project when he appointed the architect."

"The idea is that you want a bit of show on the walls and the ceilings, but to keep it to a minimum"

Working with architect Miguel Arenas, von Barnholt was able to ensure there were cavities in walls and floors to conceal fittings, and to create ambient lighting from within the architectural details.

But it's not just about looks. The brief also stipulated that the lighting should be efficient, and this was achieved in three ways: with extensive use of fluorescent and LED sources, by taking advantage of daylight and with lighting controls.

Nine out of ten sources at C'an de Rosen are fluorescent or LED. All the sources built into the villa are efficient, and von Barnholt turned to incandescent sources only for the decorative lighting and task lighting in the kitchen.

For instance, the chandelier over the dining room table - Ingo Maurer's Birds, Birds, Birds - is a rare example of incandescent lighting in the villa.

Inside the house, the mezzanine bridge and the height of the main space is defined by bespoke linear diffusers from Selux that run around the space. The sliding walls can be removed to create an enormous space nearly 30 metres long, and the lighting helps link the rooms.

The same linear fittings are used in the gymnasium, but in a different way. "In the living space it follows and accentuates the architecture," says Barnholt, "but the gym is basically a box, so we thought we'd break up the box.

Day and night
During the day, the villa is designed to take advantage of the daylight that streams in through the 6.5-metre-high glazed façade. "The amazing thing about this house is that you can go in during daylight hours and it feels like an airport - it's immense," says Barnholt.

At night the atmosphere changes as the Barrisol artificial skylights and the linear system are turned off, and niches at eye level and table lamps come into play. "If you come back at night it's completely different," says Barnholt, "with just a few table lamps on, it's like a little bistro."

Out on deck
The wooden floor finish that contributes to that feeling of intimacy transitions seamlessly into the decking outside, creating the illusion that the pool and the landscape are simply an extension of the living room. The illusion is reinforced by the illuminated furniture on the decking.

"Our clients are design conscious and they know they need a budget if they want to satisfy that"

The pool is lit by products from Bega and, in stark contrast to most of the scheme, the barbecue is cheaply but effectively lit by some Encapsulite dimmable fluorescents.

The only non-dimmable light source in the entire scheme is the metal halide projector for the fibre optics in the waterfall.

Exterior illumination of the building was driven by the architect's desire to create a transition between the rock of the mountainside and the buildings. "The architect wanted to make a transition through the use of materials," says Barnholt. "There's the mountain, rough stone, then you've got parts of the façade in a hewn stone and others in a cut stone. Then other parts of the façade are in a reconstituted stone that's painted white.

"The white block is the staff accommodation, and we wanted to illuminate that, picking up on the vertical plane. So we built the corner out to create a vertical pelmet and backlit the whole elevation with dimmable fluorries."

Von Barnholt appreciates how lucky he has been to work with an understanding client. "I would love to say that every job we do is like this, but you get clients that don't understand," he says. "However much you tell them that there is life beyond downlighters, they just don't get it."

Project details

Project: C'an de Rosen, Mallorca
Developer: deRosen Design & Build
Lighting: Max von Barnholt, Claire Morpeth; VBK Lighting Consultants
Architect: Miguel Arenas
Interior design: Krag Interiors
Principal suppliers: ACDC, Barrisol, Bega, Boom, Crescent, Encapsulite, Erco, Flos, Focus Fibres, Foscarini, Ingo Maurer, Philips, Selux
Lighting controls: Lutron
Photos: Studio Croll