Can Lis was built in 1972. After Jørn Utzon left the Sydney Opera project in 1966, he decided to settle in Mallorca. The family first bought the plot up in the mountains where Can Feliz is located today, but the authorities would not initially allow him to build on this beautiful mountainside. Instead, Jørn Utzon bought the plot near Porto Petro, located on a steep cliff facing the sea. And the realization of Can Lis got underway.
One of the ingenious aspects of Can Lis is its reinterpretation of traditional Majorcan building methods and the use of local building materials.
Can Lis was planned an organic, unified whole, its layout framing the day-to-day events that marked Utzon family life. Jørn Utzon's ideology centered on this very phenomenon - that architecture is not an external form: it is primarily the frame enclosing a collection of ritualized events.
Precise studies in 1:1 of the site potential resulted in a set of interim drawings. Based on these drawings and with the help of the local building contractor Jaime Vidal, the house's final design emerged during the course of the building process.
Can Lis has been singled out by several leading architecture critics as one of the most important houses of the 20th century.
The ingenuity of Can Lis
Having acquired Can Lis in 2011, the Utzon Foundation initiated a comprehensive restoration of the house and grounds. The restoration - from a somewhat weathered family home to a contemporary artist's refuge - demanded a rigorous approach.
The philosophy behind the restoration, undertaken by architect Lise Juel, was born out of an intimate study of the architectural basis of the house. This permitted an abstract approach to the masterpiece and a consideration of the building as a varied spatial landscape whose potential could be realised in several ways.
The primary space in the house had a spiritual and material sensuousness that was completely absent in the kitchen, bathroom and other auxiliary rooms. Because we have come to appreciate these areas as the setting for important rituals, it was essential to incorporate and experience them as a coherent part of Can Lis' sequence of spaces.
The few details added have followed Can Lis' own set of rules: Understated in essence, they serve to sharpen the focus of a sublime building.
Restoration
Marés sandstone
Majorcan sandstone was traditionally used as a building material for houses, country homes and auxiliary farm buildings. The outer walls and columns in Can Lis use this type of stone in a cavity wall construction: an innovative reworking of traditional Majorcan building methods.
Santanyi sandstone
A Majorcan sandstone with a higher density than Marés, Santnayi is ideal for flooring, interior walls and kitchen worktops.
Other materials
The main roof construction is composed of modular tiled vaults called "bovedillas" supported by armoured concrete beams. The interior walls are Santanyi sandstone, as are the floor, the built-in shelves and the worktops in the kitchen. All woodwork is Madera Norte, a Majorcan pine.
Facts and Materials
One of the characteristics of Can Lis is that it was never envisaged as a fait accompli but rather as a fluid and dynamic progression. The very first sketches, as the one shown left, are available for study on the Utzon Archives website.
