On one of the bays forming the peninsulas that separate the riverbeds from Galicia’s coast, in a horizontal landscape filled with ocean breeze and alternately burnt by the sun or buried in the fog, tucked into a corner as if in search for shelter, lies the town of Corrubedo. In this landscape that, one would think, an Englishman would not find too exotic, David Chipperfield chose to build a holiday home.

For some time I had the feeling and the fear that his decision to swap the Mediterranean, until then his holiday destination, for the Atlantic, was a result of my surely excessive – and not at all objective – enthusiasm when telling him about Corrubedo back in 1991 in Milan. I soon dismissed this idea when I understood his unconventional behaviour, open to everything and receptive to what he discovered about the place. This choice gives away the author’s peculiar sensibility for the contemplation of nature, and speaks of a personality not influenced by commonplace. This attitude is not limited to the landscape, but also extends to the cultural, culinary and ludic va- lues of the place, beyond conventionalisms, spread- ing as a vital attitude to his architecture...