FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2013 | 9THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES.

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Drenched in bold color and Spanish lightSOTOGRANDE, SPAIN

BY SUE CHESTER

Fire-engine red and cobalt blue adddrama to the audacious structure at thetop of the hill overlooking the entranceto the Mediterranean. Of all of Soto-grande’s elite homes, the Legorretahouse is a statement building that hasbecome a neighborhood icon.‘‘I wanted a special Spanish house,’’

saidGiselaRoth,who commissioned thelive-in artefact with her husband Peter,now retired as a professor of economicsand business fromMunich University.Sotogrande is a strictly no-bling, high-

end development that was founded in1962 by an American entrepreneur,Joseph McMicking. He bought 2,000hectares, or 4,942 acres, on the coast 25kilometers, or 15miles, east of Gibraltar.Fifty-one years later, Mr. McMick-

ing’s vision is a thriving community ofsecond-homeowners, 6,000 of whomconsider it theirmain residence. Duringthe high season of July and August, thepopulation swells to 300,000 and compe-tition is severe for use of the five golfcourses, sailing club, tennis academyand beach clubs.Completed in 2004, the Roths’ house is

nowon themarket for¤3.5million, or $4.5million, throughNoll &Partners, in asso-ciationwith ChestertonHumberts.The Roths, both architecture enthusi-

asts, decided that in building theirhouse theywould realize their ‘‘castle inSpain.’’‘‘We’ve hadmany properties over the

years, so we decided to have ‘the’ housewhere we like every corner, with nocompromises,’’ Mr. Roth said. Theystarted researching architects and,while leafing through a book aboutmod-ern architecture and swimming pools,stumbled upon an eye-catching designby Ricardo Legorreta — ‘‘who we thenfound out was a student of Luis Bar-ragán, whose work we knew and liked,who started the modern Mexican archi-tectural style,’’ Mr. Roth said.In designing the Roths’ home, Mr.

Legorreta continued Mr. Barragán’suse of grand sculptural forms, brise-soleil walls and roofs, and signatureopen stairways, which cast light andshade on a highly customized color

palette of purple, red, hot pink, cobaltblue, bright yellow andmustard.‘‘Ricardo said he’d never built ‘such a

small house,’ ’’ Mrs. Roth recalled. But avisitor notes the house’s large court-yard, with a roof of dramatic concretestrips, and the living area’s 4.5-meter, or14.7-foot, ceilings. They echo someofMr.Legorreta’s grandest works before hisdeath in 2011, like the Museum of Con-temporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico;the Fort Worth Museum of Science andHistory in Texas; and the Fashion andTextilesMuseum in London.Walking through the only private Leg-

orreta home inEurope is like an interact-iveexperience, going frombright light in-to dark, through color that changesshade, like purple to fuchsia. The juxta-position of various levels, stairwells,walkways and columns, as well as largespaces tosmall, createscontrasts inscale—andall to thesoundofwindchimesandthe courtyard’s garden fountains.

The house is divided into three mainliving areas. Once inside the front door,the fuchsia paint-work accenting thebrise-soleil wall bounces lightthroughout the lofty red hallway. To theright, a purple corridor leads into asmall, bright patio area that overlooks aglassed-off desert garden (Mr. Roth’s fa-vorite spot), off which a set of verticalsteps creates a 3-Deffect arounda three-meter-high doorway, creating a grandentrance toMr. Roth’s office and library.Up the Mayan-inspired stairs is the

master bedroom—what Mrs. Roth calls‘‘a roomwith a view’’ for its panorama oftheolive, pine, palmandcork tree-strewncountryside that leadsdown towhere theMediterraneanmeets theAtlantic.From this level, opposite the dressing

rooms and bathroom, a quirky glass-fronted minstrel’s gallery overlooks thetwo central courtyards below andacross to the guest wing — a two-levelarea that includes a bedroom with en

suite bathroom and a kitchen — thatforms another corner of the building.A tropical brise-soleil roof of horizont-

al concrete strips connects these twowings of the house. The concrete stripsallow air and shafts of sunlight tostream through their yellow flanks, alsocasting shade over the courtyards,which are joined by vast pivoting glasswalls allowing a framed vista of thedesert garden and out to the sea.The house’s third wing directly over-

looks the courtyards. Inside is a largeopen-plan living and dining area parti-tioned from the kitchen by a large stonework counter, complete with fossils;overhead storage cabinets; and a geo-metric skylight that allowsmore light in.What is theRoths’ favoritememory in

their Legorreta home? In 2005, ‘‘we hada party for the opening of the house. Wehad a group of Flamenco dancers on thepatio — it was the most splendid even-ing you can remember,’’ Mr. Roth said.

Mexican architect bringscouple’s vision to life offthe Mediterranean coast

SUE CHESTER

A terrace at Gisela and Peter Roth’s house in Sotogrande, Spain. Light and shade are the result of juxtapositions and use of multiple levels.

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FRANCETel : (33 1) 41 43 92 06Email: vboyle@nytimesglobal.com

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SCANDINAVIA(Denmark, Finland, Norway,Sweden)Tel : +47 55 92 51 92Email: fgisdahl@mediasales.no

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