new spaces 10 EN

here to chill out, but even pleasure requires some amount of work. Everyone knows everyone else here, and we often host parties,” the house owners explain. It was a friend who recommended the house when the couple mentioned that they were looking for a second home. Originally built around a very traditional Spanish theme, the house is fi lled with character, but inevitably a certain amount of re storation was needed. The couple wanted to give the house a modern edge without losing any of its Mediterranean style. They painted all the woodwork a matt grey and decided that in contrast to the rustic kitchen that was already in place they wanted something minimal. In London they met the designer Ramón Casado. “We hit it off immediately,” says Casado. “They are a family that are accustomed to quality and design, so it was a pleasure to work with them.” The room, which originally had a vaulted ceiling and panelled units, needed simple clean lines, a bank of wall-hung storage units and contemporary fl ooring before Elegant comfort The design of the entire house is geared toward comfort and relaxation. Best Practice 33 it was transformed. The kitchen was to be mostly a functional cooking space rather than a living area, although a dining table was installed so that the family had the option to eat in the kitchen if they were dining alone. Casado suggested a blackbrown oak table and shelves to create a feature. He also recommended Gaggenau appliances, which included a wine climate cabinet of the Vario cooling 400 series, a Vario gas wok, an oven and a Combi-steam oven. If you’re partial to risottos, then the Combi-steam oven is a must — and it also cooks vegetables in a healthy low-fat way without destroying nutrients. “What a lot of people don’t realise about steam ovens is that you can cook fi sh alongside other foods with no aroma transfer,” explains our hostess. “The clients love to cook, especially fi sh, so I suggested the largest ventilation hood,” says Casado. It’s true that the Mediterranean is a gastronomic paradise, and living alongside it means that fresh fi sh and suc culent vegetables are always readily available. You can nip down to the port, pick up some langoustines and cook them up on the Teppan Yaki. The Gaggenau island hood, with two air ducts and two fans, whisk away any trace of fi sh within seconds. When it came to designing the kitchen, another one of Casado’s priorities was ergonomics. “The clients wanted two fridges, as they buy a lot of fresh food, so I made sure that both fridges, the 91.4 cm wide Vario fridge-freezer combination and the 76 cm Vario fridge, opened out toward each other,” Casado says. Casado set the island back from the bank of storage units so that if there were three or four people working together they wouldn’t get into each other’s way. The hostess, who has taught all of the staff to cook her favourite dishes, will often delegate tasks when a huge party of people is due to arrive, so the kitchen can look more like the backstage scenes of a restaurant at times. But Gaggenau is built to withstand a punishing routine of gastronomic demands. “The clients are pretty impressed,” says Casado. Our hostess chose a pearl-grey Corian work surface, subtler than just a plain white one, and now the whole kitchen, although it was designed to be practical with clean lines, is both elegant and stylish and brings a fresh contemporary touch to an otherwise traditional villa. What is important to the couple is that their home is a refuge, a place to escape the throb of “The Rock”, entertain their friends and guests, and relax in an idyllic setting. They are keen golfers and sailors, and they love to watch polo matches — and what better place is there in Europe to do all that than Sotogrande? ¤

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