manidevelopments » The Villa

A luxury villa with lush gardens -

- and a splendid pool

A guest studio apartment

Ground floor

Studio apartment & storage

Overall plan

Technical Aspects: The house and studio apartment have 'low temperature under floor heating'.

Heat is provided mainly by thermal solar collectors (20m2, 'hidden' along the northern perimeter wall).

We are storing 1.000 l of hot water - up to 80C -

- in an insulated tank. This together with cheap off-peak electricity (to add heat if necessary) will provide hot water for tap use & underfloor heating, computer controlled. One inch copper pipes (separate circuits) for hot & cold water are providing stable pressure for all taps.

The outside walls -

- of the buildings are 0.52m thick, composed of the traditional double faced rows of stone set in mortar, connecting like a closed zipper and providing immense stability with a certain elasticity and superior insulation against the summer heat. Walls like these, built centuries ago in the area, are often still standing strong although the builders used clay to bind the stones instead of mortar. All our corner stones & lintels are hand cut! This is not the charming delicate newly composed & invented stuff (corner stones from coloured cement), but the old way.

A single-brick wall -

- 0.08m thick, is built on the inside of the stone wall with a gap of 0.04m between them which holds Polystyrene insulation sheets and a cushion of air. This kind of external wall combines the advantages of traditional Mani building techniques (very cool in summer) with those of modern insulation. This technique is applied to the annex and even the storage as well as the house. There will be no bridge for humidity or heat! The roofs and the roof terrace (48m2): insulated by a double layer of foils and a 10cm thick Polystyrene slab below the concrete respectively the roof tiles. These areas are insulated according to northern European standards. Although we do live on the same latitude as Gibraltar and the area enjoys comparably mild winters, we have to be protected against the warmth of summer.