Hidden Gem: Inside Uli Trautmann’s Serene Seaside Home on Mallorca’s West Coast

Clinging like a swallow’s nest to a mountainside on the edge of the Mallorcan harbor town of Port de Sóller, creative director Uli Trautmann’s home is an object lesson in making the very most of a steeply sloping site and compact footprint.

Trautmann first came across the land for sale while hiking in the area. “The views are unbeatable,” he says. “I love the climate, the natural beauty, and the island’s central location. It’s reachable from just about all points in Europe in two hours by plane.”

The small town is indeed a hidden gem, nestled beautifully among the impressive mountains on the island’s west coast—but still only 30 minutes by car from the capital city of Palma. This is the sort of petite, picture-book Mediterranean port that holiday dreams are made of.

The site presented some tough design challenges but also offered opportunities. Exceptionally compact and steep, it required smart thinking to create the finished home’s alternating zones of sociability and privacy. Its enforced narrowness—and orientation towards the sea—also meant it was possible to celebrate the spectacular views of land and sea from almost every room.

“On the one hand, the narrow plot and strict building rules defined the new build’s frame,” says Trautmann. But, he adds, “Due to its orientation to the north, we could afford to create extremely big windows. Normally here you must block out the direct sunlight as it’s too harsh in summer.”

Entering the house from the street level entails first walking onto its flat roof. Here, one is greeted by a narrow entryway adjacent to a roof deck and lap pool plus that eye-catching vista. Genuinely panoramic in scope, the views take in the open sea, harbor, and surrounding mountains. Just below the property, a delightful, tucked-away beach is accessible from the house by bicycle in just a few minutes.

Having entered the almost tower-like, crisply contemporary home at its very top, one descends through its various levels via a simple pressed steel stairway enclosed in glass. This elegant, sculptural structure serves to celebrate the architecture’s verticality. (Space has also been allocated to add a lift one day, should one be required or desired.)

One level down is the main living, dining, and kitchen zone—an open-plan space that leads onto a compact balcony through large glass sliding doors. On the level below are the sleeping and bathing spaces while the lowest floor contains a gym, sauna, and flatlet for guests.

The interiors are furnished in a restrained, unpretentious style. It’s “modern Mediterranean,” says the owner. “It’s all about connecting indoors and out by using aqua and green tones and giving priority to the views via a minimalist aesthetic.”

This home helps attune occupants to the surrounding landscape. Its design creates a heightened sense of awareness of the natural world, an especially laudable achievement in such lovely surroundings.

“The sea changes every day from calm to very rough and, similarly, the atmosphere in the house changes,” describes Trautmann. The best times of the day, he adds, are the early morning when the sun comes up over the mountains and sunset, when the mountains turn red, orange, and pink.