<family-house>Medusa</family-house> in <country>Spain</country> by <architect>Wiel Arets</architect>

In the Spanish Marbella on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, Dutch architect Wiel Arets designed the Medusa holiday home, which hardly suggests that the local economy is facing financial problems. The lavish project, dominated by a cantilevered rooftop pool with a glass bottom, has been in progress since 2009 (Arets made the first sketch ten years earlier). The Medusa house is located in the recreational area of Los Monteros in the sun-drenched Costa del Sol in southwestern Spain. The name comes from early stages when an aquarium with jellyfish was to be the central feature of the house. Over time, the water tank was moved to the roof, and the jellyfish completely disappeared. The rooftop pool also serves as an effective element for cooling the house. It also acts as an unconventional sunshade for the outdoor living room on the first floor. The shimmering image spreads throughout the house, whose sequence of rooms is composed similarly to a film script. Stairs, corridors, doors, and windows offer constantly new perspectives, revealing new situations and creating new atmospheres that, however, have little in common with the reality of today's Spain.