Casa CARTA

Vallado y accesibilidad universal

OAMC

Casa de Carta, MHA

Valle de Guerra, La Laguna

Tenerife, ES

#accessibility #cultural

2025

Construida

Flavio Dorta

The Casa de Carta, current site of the Museum of History and Anthropology of Tenerife, has been declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Cultural Interest Asset) because it is considered one of the exemplary buildings of the great historical rural estates of Tenerife, as well as a notable example of the stately homes built in the Canary Islands in the 18th century. Thus, the Project involved designing a fence in accordance with the protection level of the building, and creating universal accessibility to the Museum from a public road.

In general terms, the Project aims to respond to the stimulating references of the local landscape, drawing inspiration from the agricultural use of the territory, whose productive aspirations paradoxically achieve a result of great aesthetic value. Therefore, we used scraped concrete of varying intensity as a reference to basaltic stone, iron work and galvanized structure as allusions to the greenhouses that are so prevalent in the area, and wind break walls that relate directly to the traditional island crop enclosures.

The fencing for the botanical area is resolved with a galvanized steel mesh anchored in concrete walls, allowing transparency of the natural spectacle and acting as a trellis for climbing plant species that will gradually complete it over time.

For the rest of the fencing, a wind break wall inspired by traditional agricultural enclosures was proposed. This is a textured concrete wall, stained black—mimicking the texture of basaltic stone, which is very present in traditional architecture—sprinkled with a pattern of inclined drilled holes in alternating slopes, creating diverse shading and offering a modern image strongly linked to the local agricultural landscape.

To address accessibility, a zigzag pedestrian path was designed to resolve the difference in levels, leading to a small existing square, whose central position is ideal for distributing the different flows within the Museum. The ramps include banisters with double handrails and integrated grazing lighting. Between them, taking advantage of the resulting curved plane, we placed a basaltic stone rubble embankment, punctuated only by small basins with cacti, which over the years will offer a landscape rooted in the new public access.

Finally, the new access to the Museum occurs at the intersection of the two types of fencing, with the pergola—a landscaped slab sheltering groups of visitors—standing out as a key element, and subtly extending as an architectural and vegetal attraction.