Located in the mountains of Riaza in Segovia, the Soto de Sepúlveda house stands on the remains of an old stable built with rough stone masonry and rammed earth. The original roofs and interior partitions were in an advanced state of ruin, which called for an intervention that necessitated gutting the existing volume completely.

The project drawn up by estudio veintidós (Alejandro Infantes and Javier Muñoz Godino) takes the existing envelope as the physical and conceptual limit of the intervention. Instead of restoring the original layout, a free central space was left that would serve to articulate domestic life. This void was consolidated and transformed into a courtyard, inside which a small pool was built, recreating the outline of an old watering trough and reinforcing memories of the past of the place.

The new architecture is organized around this courtyard by means of three gabled pavilions. The volumes resting on the existing walls create different levels that make the new interior layout readable from the outside. Each pavilion is topped with a skylight that illuminates the spaces below, one of which is a hollow tower designed as a viewpoint overlooking the mountain landscape.

The project establishes a material continuity between old and new through the use of lime, applied both to the consolidated stone and earth walls and to the new thermoclay facades. The time difference is perceived in layers. The mixed structure of concrete, wood, and steel coexists with the preserved walls, reinterpreting rural ruins to construct a contemporary dwelling understood as a retreat.