On the Costa da Morte, the wild Atlantic coast of Galicia in north-west Spain, sits a building that looks like a boulder dropped among the trees. It is The Truffle (La Trufa), a tiny concrete retreat by the Madrid architects Ensamble Studio, and its interior was hollowed out in the strangest way imaginable: a calf named Paulina ate it.

The Truffle by Ensamble Studio, a rough concrete shell with a large window among coastal trees

The Truffle: Ensamble Studio on the Costa da Morte

Ensamble Studio is the practice of Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa, known for heavy, experimental structures in stone and concrete. García-Abril is credited as the author of The Truffle, working with a team that included Débora Mesa, Ricardo Sanz and Javier Cuesta. The project began in August 2006 and was finished in February 2010.

The result is small: about 25 square metres of floor area, enclosing an interior volume of roughly 50 cubic metres. Dezeen reported that the inside follows the programme and dimensions of Le Corbusier’s Cabanon, the famously compact cabin the Swiss-French architect built for himself on the Côte d’Azur. Here, that minimal room is set inside what looks like a piece of rock, with one large opening facing the landscape.

How it was built: earth, hay bales and concrete

The construction sequence is what made The Truffle famous. Ensamble Studio describes it step by step:

  • A hole was dug in the ground, and the excavated topsoil was piled around its edge to form a retaining dike.
  • Inside the hole, the team stacked hay bales into the shape of the future room.
  • Concrete was poured into the gap between the earth and the hay, wrapping the bales completely.
  • Once the concrete had hardened, the earth was removed, revealing a rough, amorphous mass.
  • Quarry machinery cut into the block, exposing hay compressed by the pressure of the wet concrete.
The Truffle’s concrete mass buried in soil while it hardened
The hardened Truffle mass dug out and cut open, showing textured concrete

Because the concrete was cast against soil, the outside picked up the colour and texture of the earth, which is why the building reads as a stone. Inside, the hay left its own imprint on the ceiling and walls.

Paulina, the calf who ate the interior

That left a room full of compacted hay. Instead of digging it out, the architects brought in Paulina, a calf, who spent about a year eating her way through some 50 cubic metres of feed. By the time the space was empty she had grown into an adult weighing around 300 kilograms. Ensamble Studio even lists “Ganadería Paulina” among the project’s collaborators.

Paulina the calf at the opening of The Truffle
Paulina eating the hay packed inside The Truffle’s concrete shell
The Truffle during the year it took Paulina to clear out the hay

For the architects, the hay core first served as shelter and food for the animal, and only after it was consumed did the building become architecture. When the last of it was gone, the hollow was fitted out as a compact holiday room arranged around that big framed view.

The Truffle interior after the hay was removed, with irregular concrete walls
The finished room inside The Truffle with its large window
The completed Truffle, Ensamble Studio’s concrete retreat in Galicia
Photo: Ensamble Studio

Why The Truffle matters in architecture

The Truffle is a lesson in designing a void. The room existed as hay before it existed as empty space, and the shell took its form from the ground around it. The finished surfaces record every stage: earth outside, pressed hay inside, clean saw cuts where the machines opened the block.

The project became one of Ensamble Studio’s best-known works and was widely photographed, notably by Roland Halbe and Iwan Baan. It sits on private land, so the best way to experience it is through the studio’s own photographs and film.

Sources