esta arquitectura se funde con el entorno. // ENG This is an architectural style that blends in with its surroundings. destruction of Carthage, Ibiza stopped being a stopover place and it lost importance in comparison to Mallorca. ‘This is why its architecture didn’t change’, explains Blaks-tad. ‘It didn’t evolve with the Romans like Mallorca, Menor-ca and all the Spanish coast’. While the world was changing, Ibiza remained isolated from new trends. Its inhabitants continued to whitewash their homes, creating flat roofs with savin junipers and straw, improving a technique that is over 9,000 years old. Until today. Ibicencan houses in Arizona Rolph Blakstad still lives in an Ibicencan house, though it has been modernised, with Rolph himself doing the work. He now stands at the helm of Blakstad Ibiza, the studio of architecture founded by his father that has been creating and restoring Ibicencan houses for 50 years. This vast expe-rience proves that it isn’t just a passing trend, as it can be affirmed that several thousand years after it was invented, the Ibicencan house is in fashion. ‘I think it is due to a con-junction of factors’, explains Blakstad. ‘Until very recently, it wasn’t considered anything special. It was ignored; it didn’t receive any kind of protection, but in the last 10 years there has been a social and governmental awareness’, he thinks. However, the decisive factor is a growing demand that can only be explained by the fluctuations of trends. ‘We have followers on Pinterest from all over the world. They ask us for Ibicencan houses in Australia, Arizona, Tulum, etc.”. Well aware of the fact are Ibicencan architecture firms, which have mushroomed on the island. Besides Blakstad, there is a pleiad of new architects who are recovering and updating Ibicencan peasant farming constructions. One of these people is Antonio Calvo Minguez, at ACS Architecture Studio. He adds another reason that explains modern fasci-nation for Ibicencan houses: sustainability. ‘It is an example of the respect for the environment, for sustainability that is so popular today’, he says. This sustainability is based on used materials, which are all put back into the environment. ‘Drystone walls, ren-dered and whitewashed with lime. Wooden beams and girders made of juniper savin, a conifer native to Ibiza, with small olive wood boards between the beams’, the architect explains. However, in this case it’s not only a matter of what is used; the way it is used is just as important. The features of Ibicencan houses make them sustainable. ‘The windows and doors are usually quite small, meaning that the interior is cool in the summer and easy to heat in the winter’, says Calvo. Bringing tradition into the present Another architect who has brought the Ibicencan house to our days is Pep Torres. He points out that, compared to sim-ilar constructions in the Mediterranean region, this kind of building merges into the territory. ‘The planning for the territory with the location of the different parts and ele-ments that make up the building complex is spectacular. From access paths to the threshing floor. The pens, patios, drying rooms, storerooms, porches, etc. And all combined with a far from flat topography, which led to a ordered and volumetrically harmonious complex’. Torres creates hous-es of Ibicencan inspiration but brought up to date. ‘Archi-tecture responds to a time and a place’, he maintains. ‘We must learn from the past, but plan and build according to current availability’. Ibicencan architecture is an example of sustainability and environmental integration. Its origins are lost in history (and pre-history) but it has a promising future.