Located at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in Cádiz, Spain, House of the Infinite (Casa del Infinito) by Alberto Campo Baeza embodies a radical architectural gesture: a purified horizontal plane confronting the sea’s boundless horizon. This project, conceived as a minimal podium built in Roman travertine, is not merely a dwelling but a metaphysical and spatial declaration. It speaks to permanence, classical memory, and the elemental relationship between architecture and landscape.
House of the Infinite Technical Information
- Architects1-33: Alberto Campo Baeza
- Location: Cádiz, Spain
- Area: 900 m2 | 9,688 Sq. Ft.
- Completion Year: 2012-2014
- Photographs: © Javier Callejas Sevilla
We have built an infinite plane facing the infinite sea, the most radical house we have ever made.
– Alberto Campo Baeza
House of the Infinite Photographs
Conceptual Foundations and Design Intent
Campo Baeza has long explored the poetic potential of light, void, and geometry. House of the Infinite is among his most distilled propositions. The project begins with an intellectual premise: to construct an infinite plane, a plinth of stone facing the infinite sea. The house is rendered not as an accumulation of volumes but as a singular surface that evokes the timeless idea of a temenos, a sacred precinct where gods and mortals once met.
Echoing historical and artistic precedents, Campo Baeza draws inspiration from Rembrandt’s etching Christ Presented to the People, in which a sharply delineated horizontal line becomes a stage for profound human drama. He also references the formal clarity of Mies van der Rohe and the tectonic boldness of Adalberto Libera’s Casa Malaparte. Unlike its precedents, this house situates itself not within a composition of objects but as a platform that is both architectural and geological, extending toward the Atlantic horizon.
The building functions as a philosophical statement as much as a physical structure. It abstracts domesticity into an act of looking. Standing upon the podium, one becomes part of an ancient ritual, gazing toward the west, where the sun disappears into the ocean. Architecture becomes both frame and threshold.
Spatial Strategy and Programmatic Organization
Despite its visual simplicity, the spatial composition of House of the Infinite is highly deliberate. The bare, denuded, and wind-swept upper platform is a literal and figurative stage. Here, the house’s daily life becomes a performance against the elemental backdrop of sea and sky. Three protective stone walls define this plane, framing an open void that is both a domestic terrace and a civic plaza.
Beneath this surface, the house unfolds through an inversion: two subterranean levels excavated into the bedrock. A 20-meter-wide by 36-meter-deep box conceals the dwelling’s private functions. These include bedrooms, service areas, and circulation routes, all carved from the site’s solidity. The entry sequence reinforces this spatial dramaturgy. From the street, one enters via a trench cut into the travertine, which leads down into the rock before reemerging atop the plane.
Rather than composing interior volumes with partitions and layers, Campo Baeza defines space through section, light, and geometry. The sea becomes the façade and the sky the ceiling.
Materiality and Construction Methodology
The house’s material logic is as rigorous as its conceptual ambition. Roman travertine, a material imbued with historical and symbolic weight, dominates the project. It recalls both the ruins of nearby Baelo Claudia and the tectonic grandeur of imperial architecture. Used for the walls, floors, and cladding, travertine unifies the building as both structure and surface.
The structural core, a reinforced concrete box embedded in the rock, supports the floating stone plane above. Given the harsh coastal conditions, the construction required precision in excavation, stone masonry, and weatherproofing. Suppliers such as Sierra Elvira Rocas Ornamentales provided the travertine, while Naturstone executed the façade work, emphasizing craftsmanship and permanence over stylistic novelty.
This attention to material integrity, stone, glass, metal, and wood, reflects a deeper architectural ethic. Form, material, and place must speak with one voice.
Contextual Significance and Critical Reflections
House of the Infinite is firmly rooted in its site, both geologically and culturally. The choice of Cádiz is not incidental. The location is historically layered at the threshold between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. It is a place of Roman ruins, Phoenician ports, and mythical sea routes. The house acknowledges this legacy without mimicry. It is contemporary and timeless, grounded yet abstract.
Campo Baeza’s body of work has consistently pursued the essential. This project extends that pursuit to its architectural extreme. In rejecting ornament and traditional domestic articulation, he arrives at a condition of architectural silence, a radical clarity that seeks to outlast trends.
House of the Infinite Plans
Image Gallery
About Alberto Campo Baeza
Alberto Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect celebrated for his minimalist and poetic approach to architecture, which is characterized by light, geometry, and essential materials. Rooted in a deep philosophical foundation, his work often explores timeless spatial concepts, drawing inspiration from classical antiquity while maintaining contemporary clarity. Campo Baeza has taught architecture for decades and is widely respected for projects emphasizing purity, gravity, and metaphysical resonance.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Codirectors of Construction: Tomás Carranza, Javier Montero
- Collaborating Architects: Alejandro Cervilla García, Ignacio Aguirre López, Gaja Bieniasz, Agustín Gor, Sara Oneto
- Quantity Surveyor: Manuel Cebada Orrequia
- Contractor: Chiclana
- Quality Control: Laboratorios Cogesur
- Excavation & Demolition: Excavaciones, derribos y transportes Chiclana
- Foundations: Tefesan
- Concrete Structure: Chiclana
- Roofing & Waterproofing: Sika, Fructuoso Pascual e Hijos
- Floating Pavement Base: SAS
- Partitions & False Ceilings: Hermanos Aguilar
- Travertine & Limestone Supplier: Sierra Elvira Rocas Ornamentales
- Stonework Installation: Naturstone
- Aluminum Carpentry: Jofebar
- Skylights: Hiberlux
- Metalwork: Náutica y Talleres González Guerra
- Wood Carpentry & Cabinetry: Madercorte
- Sliding Doors: Scrigno
- Locksmithing: Carpe
- Glasswork: Carlos Moreno, Cristal Vila
- Painting: Segundo Decoración E.H.
- Elevator: Zardoya Otis
- Electrical & HVAC Systems: Inelectri Cadiz
- Electrical Mechanisms & Domotics: Jung
- Lighting: Ferram, Iguzzini, Simes, Daisalux
- Solar Panels: Inoma Renovable (Igfoton)
- Plumbing: Corleo
- Plumbing Fixtures: Vola, Hansgrohe, Grohe
- Sanitary Fixtures: Duravit
- Swimming Pool: Aqualar Piscinas
- Kitchen Installation: Ambiente M.C. – Santos
- Roller Blinds: Bandalux
