The Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, built by order of King Philip II, was not only a political and religious utopia, but also an environmental one that shaped the mountainous woody landscape around. Precisely in a special enclave of this landscape halfway between natural and artificial – La Herrería Forest on the south slope of Mount Abantos – stands this house embedded into the ground along a north-south axis, breaking up into small volumes to mitigate its presence in a delicate spot. Working with scale is one way through which the building engages in dialogue with the surroundings. Another is by figuring out what the best orientations are. Hence, while on the one hand the house opens out southward to harness solar radiation during the long winters, on the other hand it fragments toward the northeast, capitalizing on the cool breezes coming in from the forest, which in the summer months enter the rooms with their pleasant scent of pinewood.